I could hear them well before we got there.
![[Movie: Flying from downed tree (65M)]](http://www.okraparadisefarms.com/pictures/2023-05-30--bees/20230530_163655.jpg)
Movie: Flying from downed tree (65M)
Video:
https://youtu.be/6cKzV1uZFto
These bees were probably living in that tree before it fell down.
Both the tree and the bees are still very much alive.
These are native bees, not imported honeybees.
-jsq
The maypop Gretchen staked three weeks ago has climbed up the stake.
![[Maypop, fruit, dogs 2023-05-29]](http://www.okraparadisefarms.com/pictures/2023-05-29--maypop-fruit/many.jpg)
Maypop, fruit, dogs 2023-05-29
Gretchen tied it on some more. Continue reading
These usually start blooming in June, so it’s a little ahead.
It appears to be a Hibiscus laevis, halberdleaf rose-mallow or scarlet rose mallow.
Here are flowers from nearby plants a year ago, and a year before that.
-jsq
Update 2023-05-30: Maypop fruit 2023-05-29.
This maypop is growing in an area we burned in January, and it had nothing to climb up on.
So Gretchen put in a stake for this Passiflora incarnata.
-jsq
Two views of mushrooms on a log.
Anybody know what kind of mushroom this is?
It’s in a wet area near Redeye Creek, which runs into the Withlacoochee River.
Looks like Pleurotus ostreatus is the consensus. Apparently, “Cleaned mushrooms can be sautéed, stir-fried, braised, roasted, fried, or grilled. Use the mushrooms whole, sliced, or simply torn into appropriately sized pieces.”
-jsq
Arrow was bemused by this big sweetgum limb in the drive path, that Gretchen had noticed the day before.
She wanted to know what I was going to do about it?
Amusingly, it fell so it was supported like a pyramid by its own limbs.
I brought the tractor and a logging chain and dragged it away. Continue reading
Two methods of potato digging.
![[Two views of 'tater digging 2023-05-15]](http://www.okraparadisefarms.com/pictures/2023-05-15--potatoes/many.jpg)
Two views of ‘tater digging 2023-05-15
On the left, tractor and blade. Upside: digs them right up. Downside: and buries them in the dug dirt, so you have to dig them up again. Continue reading
The cultivator worked surprisingly well.
Should be obvious which is before and which is after.
And now it’s raining.
-jsq
The recently planted cane was well-sprouted a week later.
A somewhat closer view. Continue reading
Was less work than expected.
![[Cane planting and planted 2023-04-21]](http://www.okraparadisefarms.com/pictures/2023-04-21--sugar-cane/many.jpg)
Cane planting and planted 2023-04-21
Not burying it as deep this year, though. Only need four inches of dirt to keep it from freezing, not two feet to shovel off. Continue reading
![[Halberdleaf rose-mallow]](http://www.okraparadisefarms.com/pictures/2023-05-27--swamp-rosemallow/20230527_182558.jpg)
![[Staking a maypop]](http://www.okraparadisefarms.com/pictures/2023-05-07--staking-a-maypop/20230507_093744.jpg)
![[Mushrooms on a log]](http://www.okraparadisefarms.com/pictures/2023-05-11--mushroom-log/many.jpg)
![[Limb, Arrow 2023-05-19]](http://www.okraparadisefarms.com/pictures/2023-05-19--arrow-downed-limb/many.jpg){kind=icon}
![[Cultivating Corn]](http://www.okraparadisefarms.com/pictures/2023-05-12--cultivating-corn/20230512_123307.jpg)
![[From the winter bed]](http://www.okraparadisefarms.com/pictures/2023-04-30--cane-weeding/20230430_101034.jpg)