The coconut wireless - chat threat 2

LOL Sylvain! How funny!

And yes, Texas has been hit hard. I refuse to buy anything that eats, drinks, or breathes air.........or can die. We did get a little rain yesterday.

I think I told some of you that my sister moved here from Mississippi after twenty years of being away. We are really having a great time together. Her boyfriend plays rhythm guitar so we have been enjoying his playing. I even bought one for myself! I am going to learn to play! My grandson is learning to play the bass guitar, and youngest granddaughter wants to take piano, so bought her a Casio keyboard. Both granddaughters sing, so now all we need is a full set of drums and a drummer.

Tonight we had a Karioke session in the living room and it was so much fun. DS even picked up a guitar and was strumming for a little while. He's never held one to my knowledge but I fully believe he might even learn to play also.

Music helps releave tention and that is exactly what we need all need right now!

Everyone take care of yourselves!

Aloha Y'all,
Jeanne

Aloha to all of you,
I read all your posts and wrote something when someone was having cataract surgery. Just to allay his/her fears that the procedure is very short if uncomplicated. I am a retired Operating room nurse and did all of one particular surgeon by her requests. A Harvard Grad!!!

Anyway I want to tell you that I met Jeanne// Texas girl while playing golf in Texas. I can't even remember what city because we played in 23 Country Clubs. I am having a senior moment right now!! LOL!!!

Been to all the Islands in Hawaii and LOVE the big Island the most especially the farmers market. Love the bread fruit and i wish i could buy it here.

Our Mom has a house in Oahu but now lives in Rhode Island.


You all have a good day. It is high 90's here but managed to play 9 holes yesterday.

Belle

FInally a little cooler here in NY! Beautiful morning--61 degrees on the car thermometer and no humidity. The only problem with all these threads is that I can't get to my garden for 2 more weeks! My husband is watering daily as the afternoon rains have just not started at home -- at least not on Marco Island. Inland has been getting rains, but no steady source for us.
I realized that several of my posts have not appeared here-- oh well-- guess it wasn't that important anyway.
The flowers here in NY are just beautiful! I'm staying at a friend's house and love all of the plants she has that I can't grow. I especially miss peonies-- one book said they were good to Zone 10-- HA! I had to baby them in Atlanta much less Florida. Hostas are off my list as well-- and I really miss those.
Guess I will pretend to work for a while-- counting the days til I get home on the 8th-- SO I can water !

Belle, it was Baytown......And it was great meeting you and Roger! I had a wonderful time! Belle and her husband are a delight!

Deb have a great trip. I know you will be anxious to get home.

Sylvain, I love your restoration work!

Pepper, I am glad you survived the dust storm. Hope the wedding went great!

LouC, can you believe this weather? It is unreal. First we have snow, now a heat wave.
Please do post your pictures here. I still can't find you on fb. I really want to see your thatched roof.

Jen, hope your eyes are healing nicely.


Take care everyone!

Jeanne

Aloha all,

Trying to catch up on the threads and I am so glad to hear that you are having a bit of fun with your obviously very musical family Jeanne. Sounds like you all enjoyed yourselves!

Debijaynes, I wonder where your threads went? Sometimes my stuff goes up into the wild blue yonder never to be seen again too. I just love the peonies too and I had a lovely "hedge" of them when we lived in Mass. I hope everything is going to be just beautiful in the garden when you get home to Marcos Island.

I have been watching the weather on the TV and Christi has had over 30 days of triple digits in a row in Texas! I bet Amanda is a little warm too! We had a 10 minute down pour of typically heavy tropical rain last Friday - it was so nice - and unusual for us at this time of year on our side of the Island. A bunch of banana's ripened up right away, I swear that rain triggers something...

I have an appointment with the eye doctor tomorrow and I am hoping he is going to tell me that the inflamation is down, it sure is finally feeling better.

My outdoor shower is finished and it is really nice to be able to wash off the black lava dust after working in the garden before I go inside. One of the guys who built the shower brings his bird to work with him and she loves a shower before they go home. I can't imagine anywhere but Hawaii that a bird comes to work with you! The guys are now working on making a new gazebo as the old one didn't stand up to the trade winds very well. This new one is very sturdy, and will probably hold up better than the house if we get a hurricane!

I hope everyone is well and holding up in this weird weather on the mainland.

Bobo in the shower

Another one of Bobo enjoying her shower

That is wonderful, Jenny. Still praying for the very best for your eye. Our forecast is 108-110 everyday this week. We are only a couple of days (and degrees) away from a record set in 1980. Have been breaking hi-temp records on a daily basis. Beyond all reason I continue to water everyday. Not especially for the grass or the plants anymore as they are already history because of the high air temps whether they are shaded or not. Trees are dying everywhere because we are in a prolonged drought as well. I water for the trees. I don't have enough lifetime left to regrow them. The banana plants are usually 8-10 feet tall by now. Because everything has gone dormant they are 3-4 feet tall and the huge aroids are unnaturally small. Local nursery says it is nature's way of protecting.....less leaf surface....less the roots have to stress. We are staying inside with the shutter closed in an attempt to keep things bearable. This is the Texas version of a blizzard. Everyone stays inside. Hurts the local retailers enormously as no one goes out to shop.

Hope the rest of you are missing this weather episode.

Christi

We are getting some of what you are getting but we get short breaks every now and then. That is if you consider mid 90s a break. A rain shower every couple weeks or so. I've had to give up on my veggie garden now. The tomatoes were late ripening then they started rotting on the vine then the bugs and worms got in there. So garden is done. Picked what I could today and brought them in to finish ripening. Now I am gonna move my soaker hose and put in somewhere else. Or just may take it off and just use laundry water to water rest of gardens. Two of my clematis plants may be dead. The leaves and stems are totally black. I hope the roots are alive and they come back next year.

On a good note, I went down to southern MO this past weekend on a float trip and had a great time!! Temps were actually halfway decent down there and we got a few scattered showers.

Here is my dog neice Abbie cooling off in the river.

Based on the track posted now, we may get some action from the Tropical Storm that's forming. My husband is watering every day and the irrigation system goes off 3 times a week. We are SO happy when the water bill is under $300! Last night Richard said that all of the plants were doing quite well.
Home on Monday and glad to be counting the days. The flowers are wonderful here, but I'll take my tropicals any day! Every time I leave I get into trouble when I get home with all my ideas. Plants are coming in September that I picked out in June from Hopkins Nursery in Hendry County FL. Ten miles of dirt roads to get there!! Hopefully they will have a Mast tree to include.
Now I need to start worrying about who will water when we go on vacation over Thanksgiving--Neighbors or paid? Anyone want a vacation in Marco Island?
I will post some pictures when I return-- rangoon creeper and blue green jade vine will be high on the list!

Hi Debi,

Do hope you get a mast tree; I love mine. It's about 5 years old and has survived with just a couple of problems with the Winters that we have had over the past two years.

Good luck,

Hap

A glorious morning to everyone out there.

Christi, I was amazed when you said you were in the 108-110F every day. What a bummer. Seeing all those beloved specimens turn brown in order to protect themselves must be very hard. Jenny (Braveheartsmom)'s garden has suffered enormously from the sun in Maui, too. This is so heartbreaking. May we all get some rain soon. Yesterday was a good day here because we got 3 good-size downpours, and for that I was SO thankful.

Great news this morning: 2 of my desert roses have produced seed pods. They were ripe this morning, so I brought them into the house to sort the seed from the dandelion-like "parachutes" that carries them away with the wind when the seed pod opens. So, it was seed pod shells in the refuse bin and seeds on the other. Within minutes, the "parachutes" deployed and were rolling around on my desk in the air conditionner's breeze. I had to put them in a piece of paper to avoid chasing the seeds all over my computer station.

I'll plant them today because those seeds have almost no shelf life. I have often said I am notoriously useless with seeds. That is not quite true. I was planting seeds that had been stored too long waiting for a sucka to purchase them from an unscrupulous dealer on E-Bay. I have seen one fruitless attempt where I planted 100 adenium seeds and got 2 seedlings to sprout: not exactly what I was expecting. So, it's into the soil as soon as I am done removing those pesky "parachutes". I'll do that outside, so if any discarded "parachutes" fly away in the breeze, I won't have to worry about vacuuming the whole house to retrieve them.

I include a picture of the seeds, to make easier to understand this "parachute" business. Oy, check how dusty my computer keyboard is! I'll clean it up fortwith. I know you'll forgive me for writing with such a dusty keyboard.

Take care, all.
Pu'ole, a.k.a. Sylvain.

Happen to catch the meter reader at the water meter. Last month I used 78,000 gallons, this month 70,000. Very surprising that it wasn't more. We are not under water restrictions just have to pay two arms and half a leg. There are mature trees dying everywhere. That is what I am trying to save at this point. No rain since February and with the brutal heat things are dying no matter how hard one tries to protect them. Very depressing as we love the outdoors and now have all the plantation shutters closed and have lowered the blinds in the sun room to try to help insulation as much as we can. Power company has been warning of possible brown outs. We had 42 continuous days of temps of 110+ in 1980. Today is the 32nd continuous day. That doesn't account for all the upper 90's days we had starting in April. If you are FB, I posted an article from The Dallas Morning News about a water reservoir in the Texas panhandle that is now totally dry but before it turned blood red. Between the weather and Washington, feeling kind of down.

We have had 2 good downpours today. I wish I could send some your way, Princess K.

I'll send prayers for rain instead.

Take care.
Pu'ole, a.k.a. Sylvain.

LouC-- That's about our monthly usage as well. Our yard is a sand that water runs right off of and at least it's nice that the plants at the bottom of the hill look great. I even have an additive to try to get the sand to absorb water. Our heat doesn't spike that high, but stays hot til late October. After yestrday's market drop, I agree, I feel down as well and am ready to get home.
I'm anxious to work on my new vegetable garden, but it will still be way too hot-- will restrain myself until I return from my September trip.
The horse show business is prospering! Last week we had over 1800 horses and though we are down this week into the 130's, considering the Pony Finals start next week and school starts in the South, we are very Happy with the numbers. For those of you interested go to HITSShows.com and see what I do.
Have a great and hopefully cool and rainy day to everyone!

I thought I heard rain last night but no such luck. I don't think Hurricane Eugene will help us. There is another storm in southern Mexico. Maybe we'll get some rain from that. We hardly ever get rain except from hurricanes and tropical storms. We're lucky that the temperatures are slightly lower than usual this year so the new trees are not boiling in the ground.

Tony is off today, getting second son Antonio settled in college 35 miles north of here. I've known Antonio since he was four so I have some of the choked-up parent/grandparent stuff going on.

I'm going to check the little plants then read for awhle.

A friend of mine in northern Ca. shares property with her mother and a disable uncle. They were unable to pay taxes and will lose the property next year. Down here most of the people are barely above the poverty line but the structure of owning homes is different so homelessness is not as much of a problem. Home may be a shack with no utilities but the bank won't come and take it away.

I was grocery shopping yesterday and saw my friend Tim who has a restaurant with his partner Lily and her sister Yolanda - all friends of mine. I give them lemons when they are in season. I told Tim about the new fruits I'm growing - he's never heard of any of them. No big surprise there as I'm working to get more food crops growing here. But it was fun watching his face as I named them.

My second gac seed has burst open and is putting up a shoot. The first one is almost two feet tall. It's a beautiful vine. You can read about it a www.gacseeds.com. I think we need a new name for it - soming in flowery Spanish.

hugs, katie

Well, I am recovering from a one day bout of flu today. It hit about midnight Monday/Tuesday and knocked me for a loop!! I am mostly recovered today though so have taken advantage of a decent day to pull my tomato plants.

Yesterday we broke heat records with high temps of 107. Heat indexes they refused to even mention because it was so hot. But a cool front is working it's way thru and our highs were in the 90s today. Rain to hit later tonight and tomorrow.

A pic of the Elk River taken from the canoe I was in on Saturday. Was on a float trip over the weekend and had a great time!!

110 today. We purchased a smart thermostat from Texas Utilities almost a year ago. Signed something that said we would allow them to turn our AC off in the event we were in dire straits. Well, it is here. Today the red light came on. Looked in the manual and discovered during high usage the AC would be on 30 minutes and off 15 intermittently until the crisis passed. All back on tonight. I would rather have do it this way than to risk having a total loss of power. Can't figure out how they turn off the compressor and nothing else on my property. Veeerrry smart thermostat. Also, they replaced the meter and send me an email once a week with a graph showing my daily usage. Can't do much about it as long as it is staying 85 at night and 110 in the daytime. Today was 33rd consecutive day above 100. No rain since February. I think I have said that before......

Hope you guys get a break soon. As in before Fall and Winter arrives...

Christi - I never thought I would suggest that you come visit me to cool off!! That's what our summers are usually like. I thought today was about 101 but the thermometer said low 90's. Very humid and no breeze. I feel like a fish out of water - gasping for air. Not even enough energy to flop around. I should knock on wood - we haven't had any blackouts for a couple of days.

There's a hurricane coming up the west side of Mexico. We keep hoping for some rain but we've had only a few drops - literally.

I've got one of my little cherimoya trees in a pot under where the a/c drips. It's doing well.

Jenny bear the dog has such thick fur - she like to lie under the a/c. I leave it on extra time for her. I lost a dog to heat stroke so I'm protective.

The weather is exhausting. I feel as if I'll never again have any energy.

I think my first gac plant has flower beds on it but I don't have any other plants and it takes a male and a female to get fruit. Patience. Other seeds are sprouting.

Hang on, folks.

hugs, katie

Glad everyone is OK. It is HOT here. Trying to stay in as much as possible.

We are all OK. Most of the plants are ok. I need to water tomorrow evening.

Youngest granddaughter will be here on Friday. She just started piano lessons on Monday. She loves music and I'm sure will do well. The two oldest have started their practices with drill and band for their High School. Football season will be here soon.

Dearest sister made Mother's recipe for an Oatmeal cake. It was sooooo good. She is such a good cook. We went over Monday night for dinner. She made a ham that was so tender and juicy, and not salty at all, scalloped potatoes, green bean casserole, and corn salad. It was all delicious, and then cake today!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

We all ate Chinese at PF Chang's near The Galleria in Houston last Sat. It was sooo good also. We have been having alot of fun!

Try to stay cool!

Take care of yourselves,

Jeanne

Jeanne, so glad to hear you are getting out. Great that your sister is with you again.

Katie, Seems like the whole planet is on fire. (prelude to hell)

We've cooled off some here but are still in the 90s. Was supposed to get some rain today but it went around us and we got a few drops here and there. I was sooo disappointed. lol.

Can't wait till tomorrow. Bought some thresher shark steak at work today to try for dinner tomorrow. My dad is freaking because he could smell it when I came home and it smelled like fish. lol. The only fish he will eat is crappie. Hope it turns out good.

Paper reports we are in the worst drought/heat wave on record. 112 today. There is not enough water. Trees are dying everywhere. Feel like the apocolypse is near.

Aloha everyone,

Just trying to catch up on all the posts, my goodness you all have active lives compare to mine!

Debi, most interesting about the horse shows - what beautiful animals, I would love to see the parade...do you ride as well as organize everything? I wonder if you got your mast tree? I had never heard of a mast tree before, thanks for posting the pics Hap. What pretty, fresh looking trees they are, I haven't seen any of those here.

Jeanne, I am so glad to hear that you are enjoying having you sister close by, it sounds as if you have a good time together - just what is needed after the sadness of loosing your Mom.

Amanda, what fun you must have had on the Elk river, and I swear Abbie has a grin on her face! The river looks lovely, so calm and serene. Hope you are over the flu - what a weird time of year to be stricken, I think flu is always worse in the summer...How was that thresher shark, did it taste good? I expect it had meaty flesh like most shark - did your Dad try it?

Katie, what is GAC? I tried to follow the link but it just took me to the home page and you had to sign in...

Christi, my heart breaks for you with that awful, unrelenting heat. No end in sight as far as we hear on the weather channel. I don't usually hope for tropical storms but in this case...I understand that Texas would need something like 29 inches of rain to get back to normal. Hopefully all your large old trees have roots deep enough and will suvive.

Pu'oke, great pic of the seeds flying around! Let us know when they germinate...lots of the tropical plants here have to be sown right away in order to germinate, so when we try something new (to us) and like it, I have a pot standing at the ready to shove the seeds into.

One of the mango trees is putting out new blossom, hopefully we will get some fruit later on in the year. It hasn't been a great year for mango although we had more that enough for our needs and plenty to dehydrate to send to the kids, I think the rain came at the wrong time this year, the mango always seem to do better when we have a dry winter...everything is in suspended animation during the summer months, not that it is very hot - only in the high eighties - but the sun is burning hot, being so far south. Like Christi's garden, many of the plants leaves go very small during the summer and look as if they are struggling.

Looks as if it is going to be a pretty day here, sun is just getting up and shining on the West Maui mountains...

Oooops. It's www.gac-seeds.com - I forgot the dash. It's a fruit from southeast Asia. I'm told the taste is rather bland but the vitamins are high and it's a bright red color. The site has some interesting information. The first seed has taken off like a rocket in this heat and it sound like it will be fine in our winter, such as it is.

The man I got the gac seeds from also sent seeds for another plant. I always like that. Though I have so many seeds I often can't find what I'm looking for.

Tony and I are both kind of dragging as our summer continues. We're grateful that it's not quite as hot as usual but we're still dragging.. My one mango is still ripening as are several papayas.

Several of the goldenberry plants are starting to take off. The flame tree we started from seed last year is probably eight feet tall. Tony is careful about keeping it watered. Two big flowers on one of the dragon fruit plants.

Must check the gac seeds and maybe take a nap. Dang, it's hot.

hugs, katie

Jenn, did you have the procedure on your other eye yet?

Well, the shark was a bust. lol. We marinated it in teriyaki sauce, my dad grilled it and my mom and I ate some then gave up. When it got cold it got fishy tasting and not very good. lol. My dad would only grill it for us and that was so the smell didn't hang around the house. lol. My old cat ate some and was in hog heaven. lol

SO sorry about the shark-- haven't had any in a while but a restaurant on the island grilled a WHOLE one and it was a hit.
Actually we don't do parades-- we have show jumping like the Olympics( quite a few Olympians here!) and classes from LEadline all the way up to 5foot+++ jumps. It's quite fun to watch and next month we have our Million $$$ Grand Prix. I'll fly back up for that. I do a little of everything-- office, judge, steward (rules) so it's fun-- but long hours.
This heat seems to never end. My husband said we got a great rain last night-- so not as much watering today.
Wish we could have Mangoes-- we are both VERY allergic to them. Richard had a reaction from them several years ago that lasted for 4 months. After going to the doctor, I finallycleared it up with Listerine and Vicks Vapo Rub.
Happy Saturday!

Christi, I am very tired of the heat! But recent circumstances is helping me deal with it. As much as I've fought, and tried to worm out of it...looked for other jobs, I received an offer from Continental United to move to Chicago. So when we started griping today, I said next winter we'll be wishing for this. I am getting a healthy raise. I am not planning on living there forever, and am not selling the house. Brian and I went to Chicago a couple of weekends ago to check it out. I am pleased to say the most memorial thing was how friendly folks are there. Anyway, you know I'm dreading wind swept frozen sleet snowcicles, but it is what it is. I just signed the offer this week and I've already started cleaning out the closets, made arrangements for the deck plants. Not moving until May, but I know my limitations and am using every moment to get this place ready. I'm making lemonade out of lemons, but make no mistake....I'm ready to remove the lemon tree entirely!

Wow Randy what a big change that will be but you have a good attitude and you have made a prudent decision. In these times a job in hand is worth the world. Continental obviously values your contribution. Hope you find a sunny place with plenty of windows for that lemon tree. :-)

Oh, Gee. Sometime between now and then you absolutely HAVE TO COME TO MY HOUSE. My garden is terrible. But I am thankful that I have a cool, quiet place to wait out this weather phenomenon. You have lived a great life around the planet and I know this will be another blessing in the long run. With all the great friends you have in Houston, feel sure they will fight over who might rent your home and keep it pristine for your return. With the financial world in such straits, getting a raise is unheard-of. Obviously, your talents are greatly valued. Your friendship means the world to me and thanks to the internet, we shall not part. Vio Con Dios

I guess that means your visit to me in Mexico will be delayed. Glad to hear people in Chicago are still friendly. I lived in Washington, D.C for awhile and really missed the friendliness of the midwest.

We are having thunder!!!

Time for my naked rain dance.

hugs, katie

rj,

That sounds great. My DD lives there and I am there 2-3 times a year. I would be great to connect. Let me know to what part you are going. She lives on the Gold Coast near the lake.

Take care and hope to see you.

Hap

Well, you will definitely hate winter but the rest of the time you will like it I think. And since it is the Midwest of course people are nice!! lol. We are known for being nice....usually. lol. Glad you are making the most of it!!

Oh, one thing you must do this winter is go sledding!! That is the most fun you can have during winter. Brings out your inner kid. lol.

Deb, one of the meat guys I work with also tried the shark. He reaction was the same as mine. Not bad while hot but once it gets cold it's not so good. He also said black tip shark is better. I think I'm done with shark. But I can say I've tried it. lol

Sharks are excellent for fish cakes.

It is cheap here but I made a mistake of not removing the skin not realizing that it is sand paper!!!

Belle

Oh Yes! Black tip is much better--forgot that oh so important part.
Randy your move sounds great-- I remember going to Chicago when I worked in the real world. I was there one January and didn't thaw out until supper-time with a healthy shot of Jack Daniel's! Good luck-- think of the wonderful lilacs!
Rain here in the Catskills, but not enough to ruin the footing , thank Goodness! We have a 100K grand Prix today-- and lots of people coming to watch.
Happy Sunday!

...and peonies, Randy can grow peonies when he moves. SIgh.......

I have visited his beautiful garden in Houston. So many fantastic tropicals. He has a touch that is pure magic.

It will be an adventure, one I wouldn't have mind missing. I do have a good friend there who moved there from Houston a couple of years ago, so he is happy. After a year I will be looking towards Houston.
Hap, I will probably be living around that area ..Near North, although Gold Coast is a bit pricy, but there are plenty of comprable neighborhoods near by I'm looking at.
I was thinking the same thing Christi, need to visit.
Katie, on the bright side, I will have less responsibility in Chicago and more time for travel.

I've already scoped out my place to visit in the winter when I'm missing plants, at the Lincoln Park green house. That, and lurking on the threads!

Less responsibility and more money. Sounds good to me. kb And you can plant daffodils.