A long absence

It's been 51 days since my last post.  This is unacceptable.  There have been plenty of new experiences to write about.

New experiences in the last 51 days:

1. Checked sprinkler heads at 3 AM
2. Hatched a second duck (His name is Julius)

Cayugas are so cute.

3. Saw and poked a manatee

They are HUGE.  Like as-big-as-the-canoe huge.

4. Watched fireworks in Celebration, FL (Ever watch The Truman Show?  The town is like that)
5. Experienced the true RV lifestyle at Mouse Mountain RV Resort
6. Began the rainforest transition to a new intern (It's like Bilbo giving up the ring to Frodo.  Doesn't happen easily)
7. Refrained from eating any food that was not grown on the farm (for an entire week)
8. Ate an Indian jujube
9. Decided that Hirado Butan pummelo is the best citrus ever. EVER!
10. Ate a rainforest grown FHIA-1 banana

1. ECHO is located in southern Florida, but for the last four years, our ideal placement for mild winter weather has not prevented the farm from suffering debilitating freezes in January.  These freezes kill most of the tropical annuals we grow and force many of the perennials to start from the ground in the spring.¹ All the banana plants lose their leaves and any fruit that has set will stop where it's at.² Some plants need special care, and many of the trees are only hardy to a certain point (usually in the mid-twenties). Because of this, the farm has an extensive sprinkler system designed to encase the farm in ice to prevent damage on extraordinarily cold nights. We also use enormous cloths to cover seedlings in the nursery and pre-sale and the rooftop demonstration area.  So on a day where freezes are expected, sprinkler heads must be tested by starting the diesel pump that supplements water volume/pressure from the well supply, line clogs must be cleared, freeze cloth must be spread and an all night watch must be maintained.  "By whom?" you might be asking.  By the interns, of course.

Gore-tex® holds a special place in my heart.

The first instance of freezing temperature in North Fort Myers, FL this year was the unusually early date of 7 December.  Some spots in southern Florida broke temperature records that morning that had held for 169 years.  This happened to correspond with the first day of ECHO's annual agricultural conference.  Fortunately the freeze was short and most plants did not show damage until after conference ended.  But it did make for a long day on Tuesday.

2. On November 30, I started a new batch of six eggs in the incubator.  One never made it past week two.  One didn't make it past week 3.  Two died while trying to hatch.³  One hatched perfectly and is named Julius and imprinted on Arnold and is hilarious right now with his tiny little wings and fat body.  The last hatched with help from me.  This last duck, aptly named Gimpy, had a dislocated right leg bone from birth and could not use it.  He was generally capable of getting around on one leg but had an unfortunate habit of flipping upside down and being unable to right himself since his right leg was unable to add momentum to his struggling.⁴ This proved to be his downfall.  He was already small and underweight, likely due to his much more strenuous mode of transportation, and when he flipped one night after I had gone to bed, he had struggled himself to death by the time I checked on him the next morning.  Poor guy.

3. Jina flew in from California to spend the weekend with me in Florida.⁵ We went up to DeLeon State Park, which has a freezing cold spring, canoeing and a pancake house where you make your own pancakes.

Why did we have to pay when we did all the work?

All three activities were pretty awesome.  The coolest part of the day was when we were almost done paddling around in the canoe we rented and floated across what looked like an enormous rock.  With flippers.  We debated whether we should poke it with the paddle for about five minutes since I was scared it would act like The Hulk™ and destroy the canoe.  Fortunately its gentle nature was on my side and poking it with the paddle did nothing except boost my own ego. I provoked a manatee and got away with it.

4. New Years Eve in Florida is a event worth being around for.  This is especially true in the middle of the state near the Disney/Universal theme parks.  Enormous budgets and ridiculous amounts of tourist dollars = absolutely amazing fireworks displays.  Jina and I decided to go to Celebration, Florida to witness what the internet proclaimed as an display worth seeing.⁶ A little background on Celebration, FL from Wikipedia.  "The racial makeup of the CDP was 93.57% white, 1.72% black, 2.41% Asian, 1.02% from other races, 1.02% from two or more races and 0.26% Native American.  The median income for a household in the CDP was $74,231, and the median income for a family was $92,334. Celebration has had one suspected murder and one apparent police-involved suicide in its history.⁷" So basically Celebration is a bunch of rich white folk with a lot of money for fireworks.  Enough money for eighteen solid minutes of fireworks.  After that extravagance was over, we walked back to the shuttle bus past the fake snow coming out of the fake lamp-posts next to the ice skating rink with the fake ice.  It was a little creepy.

5. Our plans for a place to stay that night fell through, so we found a campsite online that was only six miles from Celebration.  They said, "Sure, we have camping spots."  I thought, "Great, we'll be hanging out next to other campers on vacation in Florida."  Silly me.  The name should have given it away.  Mouse Mountain is an entire community of permanent RVs with a little grassy area they use for 'hippie campers.'

In their defense, everyone is super-friendly.

It was a fascinating look into a bit of Americana that I'd never run into before.

6. I hit my 9 month mark at ECHO on the 3rd of January. This means my replacement begins her orientation and transition into the role of rainforest intern.  Ruth, who was 10 years old when I WAS IN COLLEGE, is the newest (and youngest) intern at ECHO.  She arrived with a Brit named, coincidentally, Andrew, and is in her orientation month on the farm.  There is a lot to teach about the rainforest demonstration plot and a lot of tiny lessons to pass on.  As much as I look forward to the next phase of life, I sometimes wish I could stay here another year to really do things right.  So much of this year was learning and error and figuring out best practices, and now that it's second nature, I want a second chance to go further and deeper.  Such is life, I guess.  The best I can do is set Ruth up for success by helping her plan and manage the rainforest in the most efficient manner possible.

7. The interns⁸ decided to do 'Farm Challenge' this past week.  Farm Challenge is a yearly tradition in which interns eat nothing but things grown on the farm with the exception of oil and salt.  Our list of available foods was limited and abundant at the same time.  We began the week with low expectations and finished amazed by the diversity, beauty and taste of what we made.  Urban Garden intern Noah wrote a detailed and thoughtful series of posts on this week.  Go there for a great summary with cool pictures of our triumph.

8. Indian or Thai jujubes (I'm not sure exactly which I ate) are like apples.  The fully ripe ones are like pre-caramelized apples.

9. I'm pretty sure I said exactly what I meant to say in the list at the beginning.  It takes about half an hour to eat a single pummelo and you have full bites of nothing but sweet fruit wedges.  The flavor is like sweet pink grapefruit that lasts forever.

10. I saved two FHIA-1 banana bunches from the eight or nine that were out when the freeze hit on 7 December.  Those two bunches have been sitting in our apartment for over a month.  They FINALLY started to ripen on Thursday.  I ate one this morning and one about two hours ago.  My heart is happy.

¹The only upside to this is the relatively few pests we have to deal with when it's cold.
²This was especially hard in the rainforest, where almost all my FHIA-1 plants had set fruit or were about to.
³I think this was due to the low humidity in the incubator the last three days.  I could never get it above 50% and it should have been 65-85%.  
⁴A duckling flipped on its back struggling to get up is one of the funniest/cutest things in existence.  
⁵ I'm pretty sure it was for the weather
⁶Our first option, the Disney show, was not possible since the restaurant we were going to use as an excuse to get onto the dock of the resort was booked months in advance.
⁷ That was two months ago.
⁸ More accurately, Laura Catherine and I decided