Cloudy days make you live longer

Cloudy days vs. sunny days, which is longer?

Although the weather on Monday morning was cloudy the relatively warm temperature of 57 degrees made the walking easy.  The  humidity was in the high 90s due to a southerly flow of air up from the Gulf of Mexico.   At this time of year the cloudy days can outnumber the sunny days or at least it appears that way.  Sometimes it seems to me that a day which remains overcast will drag on and on whereas a sunny day seems to slip away without notice.  This effect probably has something to do with not being able to see our Sun's position in the sky, or maybe it is just my imagination.

 The dog has been very chipper and healthy lately and has been enjoying his walks a good deal each day.  As I have said before cooler weather agrees with him.

Harvesting of the Turnip Greens
continues at a steady pace. 

We headed out and walked halfway up the paved road and stopped at the Turnip Green field.  The greens there are magnificent this year.  I am a garden oriented person and looking at these beautiful plants doing so well really inspires me to work in my own garden.

In this unharvested corner of the field the plants are
thriving in the cool fall weather. 

The plants are so big now that the dog almost disappears when he walks down the rows.  We turned and headed back toward our home and along the way noticed that the new home in the pecan orchard is close to being dried in.

The basic structure of the new home
is now recognizable.  That was quick.

I stopped and talked to the homeowner who was running some temporary plumbing from the new water well.   He too was struck with how fast the project was moving now that it has begun.   He told me he had a 90 foot water well drilled with a submersible pump installed at the bottom.  He felt that this would be more dependable than the surface installed jet pumps most homes use in this area.  I also received some information from the owner of the pecan orchard that the corner lot which had sold is now for sale again.  I have always like the corner and though I don't know how I could swing it, I would like to purchase it.  Miracles can happen.  I will put it on my pray list.  Thanks for reading my blog today.  Bye.

We're nutty about pecans

The dog was making shadow puppets on the road. 

Friday morning the air was cool in the mid 50's with nice mostly clear skies.  The dog and I walked up to the Turnip green field to have a look at their progress.  When we arrived we found the greens are now enormous. They are so green they hurt your eyes to look at.  More are being harvested as this is the time of the year everyone likes to have greens for supper.

One more sunny day for these greens.

People here say that greens are not good to eat until they have had a frost fall on them so I guess they should be ready now.   I love fried greens with hot buttered cornbread and butter beans.
We crossed the street to walk on the dirt road beside a former watermelon field. There are some pecan trees along the road and only one of them has produced any pecans.

A good looking example of  a pecan.

 I had to crack open a good many pecans before I could find a good one.  I think these trees have suffered from the fungus that made most of the pecan trees in this area loose their leaves and nuts earlier this year.

The dog always pays attention to me when I have pecans.

Once the dog heard me cracking  and eating the pecans he came running.  He really likes eating them and he will sometimes crack them himself although he much prefers that I do it because then he doesn't have to eat any of the shells which are bitter.  I really like freshly shelled pecans in blueberry muffins. They are really good to warm you up on a cold morning or evening.    I wonder if I have any of that Martha White muffin mix at home.   Thanks for reading my blog today.  Bye.

How to grow your money

The gray sky doesn't stop the greens from looking good. 

Monday morning when the dog and I went out to walk the sky was cloudy but the weather was comfortable. We headed up to the turnip green field and had a look at the greens.  They are a very luxuriant green color.  The owner of the field has started picking them.  At 2 or 3 dollars a bunch he has quite a good bit of money out there in the field.  The trick is getting people to stop and buy them.  We turned from perusing the greens and walked back down to the unoccupied home to have a look at the yard.   The leaves of the sycamore tree are falling and covering the yard.

How many leaves are on a Sycamore?

Sycamore leaves are very large and pretty easy to clean up.  You could almost walk around and just pick them up, or you could just cut them up with the lawn mower.  As we walked out of the driveway from the home I saw that Sneeze weed is beginning to carpet one side of the road on a steep bank.

Sneeze weed is pretty on a steep bank.

It will really look pretty if it manages to bloom all down the side of the road.   While I was looking at the flowers the dog ran into a pipe that crosses under the road.   I could hear him doing something but I was not really paying attention.  When I rose to walk on back to the house the dog suddenly ran out of the pipe and back to the house.  He had found another turtle.

My dog is getting smarter. 

 If it seems like this happens a lot it is because it does.  I met the dog at the front gate and tried my trick of asking him to speak so he would drop the turtle but he did not fall for it.  I had to let him in and wait till he lay down in the grass where he put the turtle down in front of him.  Then I simply stepped behind him while he was otherwise occupied, lifted him up by his collar and pulled him away from his prize.  Was the dog upset?  Oh yeah.  I really have to be careful when I take his turtle from him because he has bit my hand in the past while I was carrying it.  I tossed it into the woods behind my home while the dog was distracted by a stick I threw in the other direction.  When I threw the turtle I think he hit a tree and bounce off.  Sorry about that.  Now the dog and the turtle were angry at me.  Well it is not a perfect world.  Thanks for reading my blog today.  Bye.

Health Top Blogs

R..J. the donkey says "Hey"

I think that angry sky is just messing with me. 

This morning the dog and I walked up to the watermelon field to look at the turnips planted there now.  On our way we stopped off to check on R.J. the donkey.  I mentioned recently that he has not been around and that I had seen what looked like a farrier or vet working on his hoof.  Well I saw R.J. today and he looked fine.  His hoof is taped up for some reason though. I took him a snack and he looked happy.

His face says it all, R.J.  feels better.

I have not seen his owner lately and I still intend to check with her on his condition.  When we arrived at what is now the turnip green field we saw the greens are doing very well.

Pretty rows of turnip greens.

They are about one foot tall and very green.  The dog went out in the field and considered marking his territory till I corrected him after realizing  that these greens will be on sale in a few days.  The owner of  the field has plowed and fertilized the rows and they really look good.  These folks know what they are doing.  The weather this morning looks low but there is an area of clearing to the north so I suspect it will be clearing shortly.  Thanks for taking the time to stop by and read  my blog today.  I hope you have a great Friday.  Bye.

Blue skies smiling at me

Blue sky above and open road ahead.  

Wednesday morning the dog and I walked to the watermelon field. To the south and west of us it was cloudy but there was blue sky above our road so all was well.  The weather here in Grand Bay is very nice this time of year but it can fluctuate between very warm and very cool days pretty rapidly which turns some people off but not me.  While the dog was walking around in the field I took a look at the turnip greens which have replaced the watermelons growing there before.

Look closely for turnip greens.

They are about 1.5 inches tall at this point so you can now see them in their rows.  As they grow the workers will thin them out which I am sure is a back breaking job.  Around Thanks Giving and Christmas these turnips will be making really nice greens and in January they should have good sized turnips on them.  They will most likely be purple top turnips.  When we started back to the house I noticed a very pretty example of a spider which we always call a crab spider but is actually called a spiny backed orb weaver spider.

Yellow spiny backed orb weaver. 

 This one is yellow but they show up in several colors around this area.   You can see a similar example of a slightly different color on Orkin's website.   They make an web that has dash on it that make look like highway lane markers. These like the markings on the Golden Orb spider's web are probably used to confuse and steer insects into the web.  Very tricky.  I have been having pain in my feet which is a common occurrence  for me as I walk so much.  Just a word of advice to those who walk and wear dress shoes during the day.  You know the ones , tight leather dress shoes with no cushion at the heel.  Apparently those shoes have been causing me some heel problems which seem to have abated when I substituted more comfortable shoes during my work day.   Just a word to the wise. If your feet hurt change your shoes.  Thanks for reading my blog today.  I hope you are enjoying it.  Bye.