The pigs are here

One beautiful sunrise please. 

This morning the weather was a delight.  When the dog and I hit the street I could not resist taking a picture of the beautiful sunrise.  The sky was blue, gold and red and shown like a painting hanging in the air above us making what might have been a chore a delight.  We walked on down to the pig farm and on the way we saw one of the purple wild flowers of late summer blooming.  It was Iron weed.  Once again this is a flower that I have seen all my life and simply identified it as a weed.

Iron weed.  So that's what it is. 

 I found its name at a good wild flower site called  Southeastern Flora at  http://www.southeasternflora.com/view_flora.asp?plantid=458#   . It is nice to learn the name that these things i have been passing by all my life are actually called by. We walked on down to the pig farm where it smells like the pigs have arrived to await the Gulf States Fair in a month or so.  I could hear the animals making noises in the farm building so I am pretty sure they are here.

Not as scary as it looks. 

  As we made our way down the road to the farm I decided to photograph the entry road that the county has spent some time on repairing over the last couple of weeks.  The sunrise made the dimly lit road seem very ominous this morning.  Really though that stretch of road is where I like to go in the morning when I know I have a hard day ahead of me.  It is very peaceful.  Thanks for reading my blog today I hope you have a peaceful day. Bye.

Gloomy morning sure to give way to sunshine

The clouds are hanging low for September.  

Wednesday morning we found the weather was very low.  The fog was hanging just at the tops of the trees and making this place look like Alaska.  When it is foggy like this in the morning it usually clears early.  The dog and I walked up to the watermelon field and crossed the street to see if the geese were there today.   They were not there in the field where the dog had spotted them last time so we walked on back home.  Once in the yard we walked around to the back yard and had a look at the garden.

The okra is standing tall.

Will the peas stay in their place?  

The okra is about chest high now and is producing heavily.  I will be cooking some peas this weekend and I will put some of the okra to good use.  I will also be gathering some to take to my mother who really likes to fry okra.  We also stopped and looked at the peas which are doing very well.  The ants are trying  to mess up some of the plants with aphids but a little sevin dust will take care of them.  The only part of peas I don't like is all the shelling they require.  I will just sit in front of the TV and shell peas and watch a boring  program and before you know it the shelling is done.   I want to freeze as many of the peas as possible for use later this year.  I like my garden vegetables in the winter.  It is like having a little summer in December.   Remember to get out and walk a little if you can, it will be cold soon.  Thanks for reading my blog.  Bye.    

Election Day

One more spectacular sunrise.  

On Tuesday morning the dog and I had to rise long before the Sun.  It was primary election day for one of our representatives who could not finish his term.  As we walked in the neighbor's field I watched as the Sun rose in the east.  There had been rain off and on all night and the clouds left from the storms made for a very colorful sunrise.  The dog really enjoys those paths through the high grass.   He runs and jumps above the grass trying to see what it is he smells.  I like the fields because they are exploding with wild flowers now.  Yesterday evening on Monday the dog stumbled into a wasp nest in a pipe he likes to play in near my house.  The wasps stung him numerous times and made him run home and hide in the bedroom.  This morning he did not want to walk near the house and jumped in the back of truck indicating he wanted to walk elsewhere, so that is what we did.  I will probably have to knock that wasp nest down so he doesn't get stung again.  I hope I don't get stung.  Thanks for reading my blog.  Bye

Fading leaves signal a fading summer

This leaf fell from the tall Sweet Gum in the background.  

Our walk on Monday morning started with blue skies.  The temperature was very comfortable in the 70's.  The dog needs more exercise now as I have found he has gained nearly 10 pounds since a surgery he had back in July.  Both of us weigh too much now and we need to eat less and exercise more.  We walked down to the west end of the dirt road because it is the most demanding physically.  On the way down I spotted a leaf from a lone Sweet Gum tree.  The leaves are beginning to turn read and orange and are falling.  A friend of mine from Arkansas told me that Sweet Gum is universally thought of as the worst fire wood you can get.  I don't know about that but I do know that it makes beautiful turned bowls on the lathe.  I made one from a log of Sweet Gum someone in Atlanta gave me and when turned on the lathe, sanded and finished it bears a resemblance to Oak only with smaller grain lines.

I think this is Phlox. 

 We moved on down to the end of the road where I took a very bad photo of the purple Phlox growing there.  For some reason the IPhone cannot capture deep colors like purple, red or orange.  I am yet to achieve a setting for those colors so for now we will just have to suffer with the poor color quality.

Come on try and take it. 

 The dog picked up his daily stick to carry home.  He likes to delay our return home by stopping in the pecan orchard.   He will lay in the grass and chew on his stick until I catch up to him.  When I try to take his stick he fakes biting at my hand just to try and scare me.  Next we have to throw the stick around in the field for a while until I am really late, then we have to go on home.  I know it's all dull and boring but I love it.  Thanks for reading my blog today.  Have a good Monday.  Bye.  

Had to happen sometime

The weather looks bad but it really wasn't.

Sunday morning the weather appeared iffy when the dog and I headed out to the west end of the dirt road.  About half way through our walk the sun began to break through and the day appeared more promising.
As we arrived at the tunnel of trees I noticed that something I feared would happen has happened.   About an acre of the thick woods  next door to one of only two houses on that end of the road has been completely cleared with the exception of two trees.  It was a little shocking to see it happen so quickly.

Bulldozers do their work fast.

 I suppose someone will be building a house here.   Maybe another home in this area will cut down on the people who throw out their trash and dead fish on the road.  I wish I had taken a photo of the woods before they were cleared but I did not.

3,2,1, Sneeze. 

  As we walked back from the end of the road I noticed that allergy season is about to begin.  The Golden Rod or Rag weed is only a day or so from bursting into a wild blooming party that will last for the next month or so.  I feel sorry for those who are going to have to sneeze during that period.  As the weather becomes cooler at this time of the year I hope you will take the opportunity to go outside and take a look at your world before someone pushes it away with a bulldozer which is after all their right to do.  Thanks for reading my blog.  Bye.

Dress for success, take an umbrella

Not one of the more beautiful days here in paradise.

Saturday afternoon the dog and I ducked out between rain showers and managed to walk down to the east end of the paved road.  It was a dull gray afternoon walk but the temperature was low due to a weak cold front moving south.  When we arrived at the end of the road we saw that the hay I photographed the other day, has now been rolled up into bales.  We also saw that Zig-Zag the bull has broken into one of the bales already and made a mess. We saw a couple of the wild flowers that grow up this time of the year along our roadside. The first was Bladder pod.   This is a plant that grows along any untended roadside here in Grand Bay.  

They look like beans but their not.  

 It will grow to be 3 or 4 feet tall and after blooming the pods will appear.  They hang there until they dry and fall off.  The plants and seed are poisonous to domestic animals so most of the cattle folks around here work to keep this plant out of their fields and stored hay.   The other plant is a Showy Crotalaria which grows in spikes at this time of the year.

Crotalaria , pretty and dangerous.  

The yellow flower are very pretty and as the name implies are very showy.   The flowers eventually fall off and are replaced by hanging bean pods. The pods dry and the loose seeds in the pods make them sound like baby rattles or rattle snakes when you walk through them in the winter.   These plants and their seeds are poisonous to cattle as well.   All these poisonous plants must make cattle ranching a difficult task around here.  I can look down the road where I walk and see both Bladder pod and Crotalaria growing in profusion up and down the road.  I guess they are a fixture.  Thanks for reading my blog.  Bye.

All quiet on the western front

The last time I will be on this side of the fence.  

Friday morning the dog and I walked down to the west end of the dirt road. Along the way I stopped to look at the new barbed wire fence my neighbor is putting up on the edge of his property. Although I will loose access to a place I have walked for 13 years now I cannot blame him for fencing it in. Some of the people in this area do not respect other peoples property and drive their 4 wheelers and 4 wheel drives trucks out onto the property and tear it all up. For some reason as I mentioned before people will dump bags of garbage and deer and pig carcasses on the property within site of the land owners home. One year they dumped some 50 gallons of yellow traffic paint into the ditch which is a wet lands area. The county had to spend a large amount of money cleaning that hazardous waste up. So no I cannot blame him for putting up a fence.    

Raccoon family night.

I stopped and looked at the edge of the pond and I could see that the raccoon family had been there last night and left a large number of tracks in the mud. They were most likely there eating the crawfish that are hiding in the mud around the pond. The crawfish come out at night to eat at the water's edge and the raccoons know it. It would be interesting to be there one night and watch what goes on there. I need my sleep so that job will have to go to someone else for now. I also stopped and looked at the Yellow Jacket nest which is empty now that the owner has killed the entire hive with a spray of some kind.  

The lights are on but no one's home.

 I pulled some of the parts of the hive out to take a look at the inner workings that I could never see other wise.As I pulled the paper nest chambers out I was often startled by what I thought was a yellow jacket still in the nest but as it turned out they were all quite dead. The parts of the nest that came out whole were other worldly in their appearance. There was an out side wall or cocoon that surrounded the nest and hanging from that were stair stepped egg chambers each one slightly smaller than the other. There was a little pouch hanging from one part of the nest that I suppose was where the queen held court and laid eggs. Just looking at the parts I brought out of the nest gave me the willies and made my skin crawl. I have spent an interesting 4 or 5 years watching the Yellow Jackets come and go each year and I was sorry they had to be dispatched this way. The neighborhood is more populated now though and these wild things will most likely succumb to our encroachment. Sorry about that natural world. Thanks for reading my blog today. I hope you have a great Friday. Bye.

Blue sky and black snake

The straight lines, blue sky and green grass looked very serene.  

On this Thursday morning I persuaded the dog to walk with me down to the east end of the paved road.  The dog doesn't like to go down there because of the electric fence. When we arrived we found that the owner of the field where zig-zag the bull spends his days, had mowed the hay and raked it into nice straight mounds.  The straight piles of hay presented a very pleasant site with the white clouds floating in the blue sky above the green field.   While I was in the area I decided to check on the passion fruit.

Look closely for the snake in the grass. 

 When I bent down to take a look at it I got quite a shock.  Hiding in the grass just behind the hanging fruit was a black snake.  He was just finishing swallowing a salamander he had caught so he was not very concerned with my presence.  I only knew it was a salamander because I saw the tail lying on the ground still wagging.  Apparently the ploy of losing it's tail had not worked to distract the snake from eating the salamander.   I watched as the black snake crawled into the grass and disappeared.

Almost ready.

I picked up one of the passion fruits that had fallen on the ground and broke it open.  It was edible but still a little tangy.  Hopefully the animals that live in the area will leave a few ripe fruits for me to pick.  On the way home I saw a group of pink wild flowers blooming on the roadside.

This little flower puts on a big show.

 I researched them and found they are the False Foxglove.  They are a snapdragon like flower that happens to like growing on roadsides.  These flowers never grew here until the county paved the road.  They broadcast wild flower seeds that have returned each year since then.  I am looking forward to the other wild flowers that will be showing up soon.  I hope you have a chance to get outside and see the flowers today.  Thanks for reading my blog today.  bye

Time for the pitch fork

The last of the Christmas trees hang on tenaciously. 

Wednesday morning's walk took the dog and I down to the pig farm again.  On our way we passed through the pecan orchard where the owner has begun mowing the grass as he does two or three times each year.  The freshly cut grass is a boon to my mostly organic garden.  I bring my little truck down the road and drive into the field where I pick up two or three truck loads of this seed free grass.  I use it as mulch in my garden in the spring and fall.  I wait until it has turned gray and it is really dry before I pick it up.  The owner of the orchard never mows this grass for hay because it is so full of cogongrass. He just cuts it and leaves it laying there.  While walking in the grass I noted the several large cedar trees in this field that appear to be out of place.  These trees are the last remaining survivors of a Christmas tree farm that was here when I first moved to the area in 2000.  There were quite a few cedars out there then.  The trees are much to big to use now as they are about 20 feet tall.  In the cold weather they produce a pleasant fragrance when you brush against them.  The smell always reminds me of Christmas time.    The county's road grader and dump trucks were out again this morning finishing the road work they started last Thursday.  They are laying down a thick layer of crushed limestone which will become cement like once it rains.  It should keep the red dirt from washing as badly as it has in the past.  The weather during the last few days has been very hot and dry in the daytime and cooler at night which is normal for this time of year.  I was told by my brother a tropical system is in the Gulf of Mexico and the weather forecasting models show it coming our way.  Let us hope the models are flawed.  Thanks for reading my blog. I hope you have a great Wednesday.  Bye.

A short walk and a tall pine

A friendly giant lives in the woods.   

Tuesday mornings walk took us up to the west end of the dirt road.  It was a very quiet morning after yesterday's tumultuous passing of a very large thunderstorm.  Fortunately the brunt of the storm passed north of Grand Bay.   We did receive a small amount of rain which was appreciated by all gardeners in my area. On our way up to the end of the road we passed a gigantic pine tree standing right on the edge of the road.  I stopped to ponder this tree as it was so much taller than all the others around it.  The tops of the surrounding trees were probably 40 to 50 feet up but the pine soared another 30 feet above them.  It's top was in the morning sun long before the shorter trees ever felt the first rays. I would imagine the tree is 40 to 50 years old judging by it's height.  Pines here in the south can grow very quickly and reach tremendous heights in a relatively short period.  All of the limbs on these pine trees are growing near the top which gives them a good bit of protection from a fire that may be burning far below in the under-story.  I pass this tree often when we walk this way and I always look up in awe of it.

Head south here for a cool swim. 

  Once the dog and I reached the end of the road I took a look down south on the paved road.  When we want to go to the creek where the dog likes to swim we head south on this road for about 1.5 miles or so.   It makes for a long walk for both of us because this highway is dangerous.   The dog must remain on his leash which he does not like at  all and he pulls me along which is very wearing to someone who likes to amble like I do.

Idyllic prospect is only recent.

  We headed back home from  and I stopped and took a look and a piece of land I rarely ever look at.  It is directly across from the Yellow Jacket hive so most of the time I am looking in that direction.  I climbed up behind the brush and the prospect  was very nice.  The land falls away to a drainage at the bottom.  There are pines and short cogongrass growing in the field.  The present appearance is only recent though.  The owner had the land which was very overgrown cleared about 5 years ago.  He told me that the way it looks now is the way it looked when he was a kid working at his Dad's pig farm  some 50 years ago.  I guess the more things change the more they stay the same for some people.   Thanks for reading my blog.  I hope you have a good day.  Bye.

Meeting the Sun

Night hangs on but it's grip is failing. 

This Monday morning the dog and I were out on our walk very early. When we arrived at the watermelon field the sky was transitioning from night to day.  Above us was the dark dusky blue sky where hints of the fading night still held onto the the gauzy cirrus clouds.  At the horizon the sun was just peeking from behind the trees glowing brighter by the second while just below the faintest hint of fog hovered above the dusty dry soil of the plowed field.  Overlook a sunrise and you miss a gift that has blessed mankind since his creation. The dog and I are fortunate beings in that we often see this beautiful event.  I can promise you that if you go out to meet the sun as it comes up you will not be disappointed by your effort.   Thanks for reading my blog today.  bye.  

Chestnuts roasting on an open fire? Maybe

That dot on the road is a dog who is scared of electric fences.  

Oh what a beautiful morning it was.  Very cool.   You had to have been down here in Grand Bay the last couple of months to understand what a relief it is to walk out in the morning and not arrive home covered in sweat.  Those mornings may be gone until we have our mid December heat wave some time between Thanksgiving and Christmas.  The dog and I walked down to the east end of the paved road and I turned the corner to go and look at the goats.  As you can see from the photo the dog begins his homeward journey when I turn the corner because he is afraid of the electric fence as noted in my earlier blog.  I went down the little private dirt road to see what the goats were doing and while I was looking for them in the fence something clicked behind me.  I turned to see two beady goat eyes looking at me through a tall fenced corral normally used for herding cows into a trailer.  I walked over to where the goat was looking at me through the fence and noticed that all of the goats were now here in the corral which was across the road from their previous location.  Apparently the owner wanted the goats to clear the brush growing in the corral which was pretty much obscuring the presence of the goats themselves it was so bad.  The goats had eaten all of the brush from the area where they were before and the only goat left there now was the baby goat who was bleating loudly for it's Mom I suppose.  They have cleared the woods there so effectively that I can now see through to the field behind the wooded area where the goats were before.

Shoes are mandatory here.  

 I took a photo of the chestnuts growing by the road which are almost ready to fall from the tree.  It should be a good crop of nuts. The owner of the goats usually allows me to pick up the chestnuts as he doesn't like to deal with the stickers on the shell.

Looks like Hawaii.  

 I also took a photo of the beautiful Hibiscus that is growing nearby just at the edge of the road by the water trough for Zig Zag the lonely bull.  The Hibiscus is a distant cousin of okra and cotton.  Their flowers are similar but each ones plant is very different.  You don't want to have your Hibiscus near your okra as they can cross pollinate and cause your okra pods to grow strangely if you save seeds.  Once I was back on the paved road I managed to coax the dog back down to the end of the road with a ruse about throwing something into the bushes  He never wants to be left out of any game of fetch.  We then headed on back toward the house.  As we passed by the soy bean field on the left I saw Zig Zag the bull considering his chances at getting through the barbed wire fence into the soy beans.  I suppose cows will eat soy beans when they are green but I don't know if they are good for them.  I will keep and eye on him just in case.  Thanks for reading my blog.  I hope you got a chance to go outside today.  Bye.

Why can't every day be Saturday?

Wait until wild persimmons turn pumpkin orange before eating.

On Saturday the dog and I walked out into a cool morning and we headed up to the watermelon field.  The owner of the field is preparing it for a new crop.  What that crop will be I don't know yet but I will keep you informed.  As we walked by R.J. the donkey made a very loud request for a hand full of grass from my side of the fence.  I guess he thinks the grass is tastier on the other side of the fence.  We traveled over to the unoccupied house and had a look at the wild persimmons which are getting very close to being ripe.  I found one that was ripe and it was pretty good.  An unripe persimmon is a very unpleasant experience.  When you bite into an unripe persimmon your mouth feels like you have eaten a mouth full of wax.   As I said these are wild persimmons so they are small, about 1.5 inches in diameter.  Most of them are eaten by squirrels and birds before I can get any so I eat them when I find them ripe.  We traveled back over to my house where I had a full day of gardening ahead of me. 

Mexican petunia in the early morning.

In the back yard I noticed the Mexican petunia looked quite purple in the morning sun.  Later in the afternoon when all of the gardening was done we drove down to the neighbors field and walked the paths.  It was very warm at around 7 pm when we were there.  The weather pattern has changed as it often does this time of year to dry warm days and cooler nights and early mornings.  It won't be long and we will have the opportunity to open the windows at night.  That will be the nicest time of the year. 

The end of a great Saturday.

When the dog and I where leaving the fields this afternoon I took a photo of a colorful sunset.  There seems to have been a lot of opportunities for that lately.  We drove around in the truck a little and then went on back to the house.  Tonight we are having vegetables from the garden. Black eyed peas, yellow squash and some volunteer turnip greens that I picked today.  All in all not a bad Saturday.  Once again I hope you are getting all you can out of your walks and your time outside.  Thanks for reading my blog.  Bye.

Yucky Charms, Green potatoes, Golden orbs, yellow crabs

The Air potato looks pretty as it takes over.  

This morning the dog and I walked down to the west end of the dirt road.   It was a very comfortable morning with fairly low humidity. At the end of the road we turned around and I spotted a vine of interest growing up a magnolia tree.   The vine is what we call the potato vine.  Apparently the correct name is the Air Potato.   This vine according to my research has been in Alabama at least since 1770 when it was first noticed.  I don't know if you can call a plant that has been here over 200 years an invasive species or not so I will leave that one to the philosophers.   The vine grows up and makes big green potato like spheres which hang from the stem.  They do look very much like potatoes but the web site I checked said they were poisonous so do not eat them.   I also noticed an example of our old friend the Golden Orb Spider.

Hard to see from this angle.  

Hiding in plain site.

 I had a chance to get fairly close to this one and I could see that it was very large.   It was slowly and meticulously weaving it's web while as I watched.  When you consider that they weave the web without ever actually seeing it you realize how much of a miracle these things really are.  When we arrived home my quick walk through the garden turned up another of the spider family hanging out on my okra plants.  This was another of the crab spiders that seem to be taking over my garden.   This yellow one was I guess trying to look like a vein in the leaf so a fly might mistakenly land on her.  As many of them as there are in the garden now I am surprised those little flies can survive but, I suppose there are plenty of flies to go around.  Thanks for reading my blog.  I hope you have a good day.  Bye

A walk in the park

The pecan orchard is beautiful in the morning.

Thursday morning the dog and I walked down to the pig farm.  It was very comfortable  with  cool temperatures.  As we walked down  we passed through the pecan orchard on the right side of the road. The shadows cast by the morning sun  through the trees were very long and eerie.  The orchard when the grass is cut looks much like a park only there are no people there.    As we walked along I began to hear a familiar roaring sound.  It was a sound that I have come to know well after 13 years of living on or near a dirt road.

Our old buddy the road grader.  

                                                   The sound was coming from the big road grader that maintains all of the dirt roads in my part of the county.  Although I do not know the name of the driver of the grader we are still friends who know each other.  I wave as he passes and he waves back and continues on with his never ending task.  When I was preparing to go to work I noticed the county dump trucks were hauling in red dirt which is what the roads around here are made with.  The dump trucks put the dirt on the road and the grader smooths it out and then they repeat the process.   The red dirt constantly washes down the road  to the end that is lower and then it washes into the woods. Because the dirt won't stay where it is supposed to it must be constantly replenished.

Very small morning glory.  

We continued on to the farm and then turned around and were  headed home when I saw several groups of pretty morning glory flowers in the brush.  I thought the white ones were pretty because they are just so small.  They are only about 3/8's of an inch across. All in all an enjoyable walk this morning.  I hope that if you are able to walk that you will let me know what you see a comment.  Thanks for reading my blog.  Have a good day