The real Blob

During the summer...Kudzu never sleeps.  

Sunday evening the dog and I walked south to the Pig farm.   We both just tripped along aimlessly in the heat and humidity of the afternoon.   By the time we arrived at the end of the road my clothes were soaked with sweat and I felt exhausted.  We stopped for a few minutes and rested during which time I took a photograph of the Kudzu vine covering the field on the right side of the picture.  There is actually a forest of bushes growing under the Kudzu vines in semi shaded conditions.  The vines grow madly during the summer and are killed to the ground in the first freeze of the winter.  Kudzu was brought here from Asia in the late 1800's as a decorative plant, then it was used to provide ground cover as protection from soil erosion by the Federal government in the 1930's.  Since then it has escaped to cover as much as 7 million acres of the south.  There is no solution for the vine in the form of a herbicide so all anyone can do is cut them down and dig up the roots.  I guess we are just going to have to live with this immigrant as there is no way to make it go home.  A familiar story here in this country.  Thanks for coming by today.  Bye.





Rising with the Sun

The days grow shorter as the Sun moves south. 

The dog and I walked to the east end of the paved road where we found the culvert has almost completely dried up.  The clear skies of the last few days have sent all of the eels, crawfish, and minnows into hiding.  It was fairly early so the sun was just rising.  I turned south onto a little private  dirt road that passes through the soybean fields.  The dog stayed behind on the paved road because he had a bad experience on this road and he has a good memory.  One of the property owners brought some of his goats to an electrically fenced wooded area next to his home.  The idea is that the goats will eventually eat all of the brush making it easier to clear out.  As I said on a previous walk the dog contrary to all of my warnings decided he wanted to check out the goats by sticking his nose through the fence.  Apparently the fence is designed to protect the goats from what is outside rather than the other way around.  The dog brought his nose in contact with the fence and received a memorable shock.  He ran all the way home and hid under the truck.  Now he will not so much as look around the corner much less come down the road with me.  While he waited at the corner, I walked down to where the soy beans fields are split by the road so I could get a look at the sunrise.  It was very nice this morning so I took a photo which I have posted. The soy beans are approaching maturity and it wont be long before they will be harvested.  There are several pecan trees that can be seen scattered through the photo.  The community of Grand Bay once had thousands of pecan trees but hurricanes and time have reduced their numbers.  Fortunately the Chinese like our pecans and have begun to increase the demand for them.  Many land owners are replanting their orchards so in a decade or two barring any serious hurricanes we will see the cool shady orchards spreading across the land again.  Thanks for reading my blog.  I hope you have a good day.  Bye





A borrowed path

These Canadian geese won't have to fly south for the winter.

Sometimes especially in the heat of the evening the dog refuses to walk. He will simply stand in our drive way and watch me walk away.  He and I both need to walk every day as it may help us stay in better health.  Neither one of us is getting any younger.  I will occasionally trick the dog into riding down the road in my junky little truck to a field belonging to a neighbor.    The neighbor keeps a trail mowed through the high grass in the field and in the adjacent woods so he can drive his golf cart and four wheeler there.     When we got to the field the dog jumped out and gladly walked with me on this new unmarked territory.  We walked the circular path around the field and then crossed over to an old abandoned trailer park across the road.  The park was a going concern with 30 or more trailers in a fairly nice pecan orchard.  When we had hurricane Ivan in 2004 and then Katrina in 2005 many of the trailers were damaged when the pecan trees fell on them.  I guess the owners could not keep the place going after their lot renters left for FEMA trailer parks in Bayou La Batre.  When the last trailer was pulled out the owner just let the grass and bushes grow and now all that remains is two paved streets through a growing woods.  It makes a relatively safe place for the dog and I to walk.  As we were finishing our walk and loading up to leave I heard the sound of a flock of geese.  I looked around and noticed it was a very large group flying from a nearby pond to wherever geese go at night.  I managed to get a photo of almost the whole group.  They were moving fast and honking loudly at one another.  It was a very pleasant site to behold.  My experience with Canadians is that they are very polite but their geese are noisy. All in all,  I don't mind having them for neighbors.  Thanks for stopping by.