Throw me something mister

The dog would never go home if I didn't stop throwing dirt clods.    

Saturday night the dog and I walked out into the plowed watermelon field on the paved road.  I took the dog up there because he loves to play catch.  I don't know if other dogs like to do this or not but, my dog loves  to catch dirt clods.  When I till my garden he will watch while I work in the garden and when he sees me bend over he expects that I am going to throw a dirt clod for him.  Any hole I dig or any place I turn the ground over the dog is there standing beside me intently staring at the dirt clods to see if I will throw any to him. I know it is strange but my dog is and always has been strange.   Well when we arrived at the plowed field the dog was in heaven.  I threw the dirt for him for quite a good while until my arm was sore.  Most of the clods I throw to him he drops and waits for me to throw another but some of them he actually eats.  I believe they may have some kind of mineral in them that his body is in need of.  I am not sure what it is but, he enjoys it and has from when he arrived at my home till now.  When I stopped throwing the dirt the dog reluctantly returned to the house with me.  

Hurry up I'm hungry.  

 I went outside to take some photos of the moon at sunset while the dog watched through the front door from inside the house where it was cool.  I am attempting to shoot night time photos of stars and planets with the IPhone.  It is not a very easy thing to do but the IPhone is very versatile so eventually I think I will get it done.  I like a good challenge.  Thanks for reading.  Have a peaceful night.  Bye.

Bitter tomatoes and sweet nectar

This plant looks like a Chinese lantern.  

Saturday morning our walk took us down to the place where the Yellow Jackets have their nest.  They are moving along on their repairs and I will post a photo when the exterior begins to change. This morning was reasonably comfortable with temperatures in the mid 70's and humidity in the 80's.   After looking at the bees we started back and I noticed a plant that is producing a strange fruit that is interesting.  My research shows this is what is known as a ground cherry or wild husk tomato.  Supposedly it is a bitter tasting  wild cousin of the tomato.  Although I have seen it all my life I know of no one who has ever eaten them so, I don't recommend it.  I remember playing with them as a kid but we never even thought of eating it then either.  I took some photos of the plants and the dog and I walked back up to the house to have a look at the garden in the back yard.

Swallowtails love this.  

 I have a good crop of volunteer zinnias growing there and on a hot morning the butterflies, moths, bees and even humming birds come by for a drink.  While we were out there a couple of big swallow tail butterflies came within reach of my camera and I ran around the garden until I took an acceptable photo which I have posted.  They like the butterfly weed that comes up on it's own every year somewhere in the yard.  If you want butterflies to come to your yard or garden plant zinnias and butterfly weed.  They are both pretty much maintenance free and the purple zinnias will bloom from spring to fall.    Thanks for coming by today.  I hope you have a great Saturday.  Bye.

Don't step on the toad or the snake on the road

Bufo Terrestris hides in the grass.  

Friday evening as the dog and I began our walk we nearly stepped on the little brown fellow in my photo post.  It was the Southern Toad.  He was sitting on the warm asphalt driveway catching anything that he could get in his mouth.  Maybe a cricket, some grass hoppers, a roach or two, or any one of a hundred different little creepy crawlies wandering around in the yard at night.  He didn't care for the idea of sitting still for a photo shoot which forced me to crawl around in the grass for the picture I have here.   After the frog fashion show we walked up to the field where R.J. the donkey would normally have been but he was not in. It was a good thing he wasn't because across the street we saw another snake similar to the one I saw on Friday morning.  I am having trouble identifying it so if anyone thinks they may know what make it is please pass that along.

Do you know this snake?

 I am not sure if there is a large number of these snakes that where just born or if I am seeing the same one.  They are not very aggressive and don't try to scurry away when the see a human.  I watched the snake go into the neighbor's yard and the dog and I walked on up the road toward the watermelon fields.  As it was very hot and humid we decided to return to the nice cool house for some supper.  Thanks for stopping in.  Bye.  

Friday already?

Joe cool ambles in the morning sun.  

Dog investigates the geese. 

Very small snake investigates me.  

Well it is Friday morning and the dog and I walked out into some very nice weather.  The humidity was fairly high but the temperature was very comfortable.  We walked to the area where the watermelon field was and I noticed quite a few Canadian geese resting and browsing in the field across the street.  The dog went down the path to have a look at them and they all stood up and began walking away from him in a straight line. The Canadian geese that live here in my area are apparently interbreeding with some domestic geese in a nearby pond.  I see the wild and domestic birds together by the pond but when the wild birds fly off the domestics remain in the pond.  The domestic geese have some of the Canadian markings on their offspring but for the most part they are white.   We headed back to the house found the sun beating down brightly when we turned the corner.  My dog has never been a house dog but lately he cannot wait for me to open the door and let him in.  I think the heat and the thunder storms have just been too much for him.  When I was ready to leave for work I spotted a visitor coming up the brick wall next to the front door. It was a very small snake about a foot long, possibly a baby corn snake or pine snake.  A young lady I work with told me that snakes near the front door would have her putting up a for sale sign in the yard that day.  If had to leave because of snakes I would have ran away screaming a long time ago.  This place is literally crawling with them.  Strangely though since I started seeing a lot more snakes in the yard again there have not been as many mice coming into my house.  I wonder where they went?    Thanks for reading.  Bye.

Magnificent Magnolia may have antebellum roots

A beautiful Magnolia.  

The big tree from about 100 feet away

I rousted the dog out and we walked down to the same pecan orchard we crossed this morning. This time we had to cross the tick filled cogongrass without the help of a trail. The grass which in some places grows chest high is difficult to cross but the destination made it worth it.  We were walking to a very old magnolia the size of which I have never witnessed until I stumbled onto this one.  I photographed the trunk with the dog standing next to it to give some sense of the size.  The dog is about 5 feet from nose to tail so you can see that the trunk is very wide.     A couple of the branches that extend from the trunk are at least 2 feet in diameter and they travel out nearly horizontal for about 20 feet.  This tree is in the middle of the orchard so it must have been very large when the orchard was planted to have been spared.  I have a feeling that someone lived under or nearby because there is a crepe myrtle growing to one side.  There is also evidence that there was some kind of building on the ground in several places around the tree.  The folks who own the orchard almost never come here and I have only seen a few of the family members here once while they were shooting squirrels. A very large wisteria vine has grown up into the tree on one side and appears to be ancient itself.  The vine has a massive trunk of about 5 inches.  I viewed a couple of old magnolias online and I would think that this one probably predates the civil war period.  This area at that time was most likely untamed wilderness with only the occasional hunter passing through the woods.  This tree is a gift to us from the distant past.  My hope is that this old timer will see another hundred years of peace and quiet in the orchard.   Thanks for coming by tonight.  

Grand Bay, Land of the escapees

The dog walks ahead in the tall Cogongrass.  

This morning the dog and  I walked over to another of those untended pecan orchards that are near my home.  As we headed into the orchard I discovered that the dreaded four wheeler's have been here before me. But today they have done me a favor by knocking down a path through the high congongrass.   Once again I have to tell you about a plant that has made a new home here in our area.  The high grass you see on each side of the path is cogangrass.  According to the University of Florida this grass got it's start in the U.S.  right here in good old Grand Bay, Alabama in 1912.   Apparently it fell out of some satsuma packing crates from Japan and from there it has spread like wild fire.   It was accidentally introduced into Mississippi in 1926 when a cattle farmer wanted to use it as feed for his cattle.  I have plenty of experience with the grass.  I go into the fields after it is cut by land owners and I gather it and bring it home. It makes an excellent seed free mulch that stays in place after it has been sprayed with water. I have been using the seed free cut grass for years now with no noticeable spread into my garden.   The grass in the fields will produce a tremendous number of seeds in the spring which are covered with down.    The wind blows the down and the seeds far and wide quickly spreading the plants.   Eradication is difficult so the Cogongrass continues it's march.   My view is that if something becomes a nuisance we cannot eliminate,  we should learn how to use it or how to eat it.  So I will use it.  The dog and I continued on down the path to the edge of the forest where the path travels into the woods.   People use this path to bring pig traps into the woods.   This area is in a round about way near the pig farm where the pigs have escaped and become feral.  The more I write about Grand Bay the more it seems like this place has basically been over run by people, animals, plants and insects from somewhere else.  I am discovering that the way things have always been is not always the way things have always been.  It is an interesting journey.  Thanks for reading today.  Bye.

Learning how to live again

This gold you can't hold.  

This evening it was very warm and humid when the dog and I decided to go for our walk.  We drove down to old abandoned trailer park and walked up and down the patchwork of asphalt that is the only sign that civilization ever existed there.  As I walked down the old road I noticed the bushes and trees have formed a wall on both sides nearly ten feet high.  Every now and then something out of place pops up like a beautiful explosion of pampas grass or a crepe Myrtle blooming pink in a forest of green bushes.  It truly feels like a place where we humans have been expelled and nature is returning things to the wild state.  We walked out of this odd place and out onto the road were I managed to get a photo of some sunlit thunderstorms to our north.  The sun had long ago set but these clouds are so tall that they remain brightly lit for as much as 45 minutes after sunset.  We walked on across the road and into the grass field where the paths had been freshly mowed by the neighbor who lives on the adjacent property.  When we walked around the path and back out again we passed by our truck.  The dog walked over and stood by the truck as if to say" I'm tired, let's go for a ride".   So we drove around a little and headed on back home.  I know what you may be thinking, it seems dull and boring and routine to walk every day in the same place all the time.  I have lived the life of rising in the morning to find myself in an unfamiliar town, with unfamiliar people and feeling very lonely and sad day after day.  But now I walk with my best friend along a very familiar road on a warm summer's evening and watch the sun go down, these things are truly food and water to this hungry man and for these things I am truly thankful.  My hope is that everyone will one day have the chance to enjoy these simple pleasures as much as I do.  Thanks for reading my blog.  Have a good night.  Bye.   

The count down continues

American Beauty Berry.  I thought it was Basswood.

The storms from Tuesday evening have blown a few limbs down but otherwise little damage occurred in our area. The dog and I walked down to the west end of the dirt road and saw another sign that summer is drawing to a close.  A plant called American Beauty Berry is producing big clumps of purple berries which are in stark contrast to all of the green leaves in the background.  When these berries turn purple you know it won't be long before the leaves begin to fall and the Canadian cold fronts will be coming our way.  I have read that some people actually eat these berries.  They don't look very appetizing  to me so I won't be trying them any time soon.  

Pastel purple Morning Glory

Pastel blue Morning Glory

 Another sign of the changing seasons is the wild morning glories growing up on bushes and weeds on the side of the dirt road.  I noticed two different colors were present so I took photos of each.   I think the pastel blue morning glory is the best looking of the two.  Maybe that is because I see it  more rarely than the pastel purple version which is everywhere this time of year.  The wildflowers here in Grand Bay are starting their fall season and it promises to be a good one.  My apologies to the allergy sufferers out  there.  I have had allergies in the past that I grew out of somehow so, I can sympathize with your misery.   Benadryl helps a little and is relatively safe.   Please do try to get out and look at the roadside flowers that are growing free for all to enjoy because soon they will be gone, along with your allergies.  Thanks for reading today.   Bye. 

Coupon cutter

My dog the smart consumer.  

The Tuesday evening walk was cancelled due to severe thunder storms moving through the area.  The dog did mange to get out into the driveway and pick up the bag with weekly grocery coupons in it.  He loves to cut coupons.   In fact he loves cutting coupons so much he just can't stop until they are torn into little pieces all over the floor.  Funny thing is I have never seen him returning from the store with any discounted groceries.  He must be sneaking them in under cover of darkness.  The dog really likes these coupons. On the day when the stores drop the coupon bags in every one's driveway in the area where we walk,  the dog will steal them and immediately turn around and run for home.  When he finds one of those bags he looks like he has found a bag of T bone steaks.  He will snap at me if I try to take them from him so I don't even try.  Most of the time he runs home and tears them up on the front lawn but lately he has been coming inside and creating a mess in the back bedroom.  Well I have to go organize the dogs coupon collection in the trash can.  Hopefully we will get to walk in the morning.  I will let you know.   Thanks for coming by. 

Lonely rose blooms for no one

Fleeting beauty.

This morning the dog and I took a short walk up the road to the home of the lady who is in the nursing home.  After walking around and making sure everything was OK we took a quick look at the flowers.  There is a rose in the back yard that blooms every year without fail.  I don't know what the variety is but it should be called the beauty of endurance because it survives with no help from anyone.  The crew that cuts the grass has not cut it down because it backs up to an old chicken coop which has provided protection from the mower and  the weed eater.  The smell of the rose in the morning and evening is really wonderful and I always look forward to it when I see it.   I have a great deal of admiration for roses that can take on difficulties and abandonment and still produce a beautiful flower year after year.  I think there is a lesson in that somewhere.  Let me know what you think. Have a great day today. Bye  

The happiest dog in the world

Living the dogs life. 

Our walk on Monday evening was a long one.  The dog and I walked about 2.5 miles to a small creek that travels under a bridge.    Once we arrived at the creek the dog jumped in the water and swam around in the cool water for a few minutes.  The county has placed rock on one side of the bridge to help with erosion during periods of high water.  I sit on the rocks which form a sort of amphitheater which runs down to  the water.  The water temperature is very low relative to the air temperature so I imagine it feels very good.   I don't swim there because I am by myself and the bottom has stumps, limbs, snakes and big turtles to worry about.  Maybe one day if I can get my brothers to help we can clean the bottom and it will be a great swimming hole.  For now though it belongs only to the dog and as you can see he really enjoys it. The cool water seems to be the dogs perfect element.   I couldn't get the surroundings in this photo but they are as beautiful and lush as any jungle. The very cool water comes from a shady swamp on the other side of the bridge.  The sun has little chance to warm it so the temperature is probably in the high 60's or low 70's.   There are some large fish here but they are very smart and know how to run for entangling cover when they are caught.   The sad thing about this creek is that for some reason people around here have a tendency to throw all kinds of trash into the water.  It stays for a while but when the water rushes 10 feet deeper after a week of heavy rains everything is flushed down stream.  The color of the water is tinged with brown due to the tannin from the leaves that fall in the water but for the most part it is extremely clear.  People have written graffiti under the bridge which is sometime silly and sometimes shocking.   From the subject matter which is mostly sexual in nature I would say the writers are very likely teenagers.  In the summer time the area under the bridge can be as much as ten degrees cooler than the surrounding country side which makes me wonder why more people don't show there.  For now I guess the dog and I have it ourselves.  Thanks for reading my blog.  Have a good evening. Bye.

One man sows and another man reaps.

Going to see the pigs in the shade.  

The dog and I walked up the paved road to the watermelon patch and turned around pretty quickly due to the heat of the fast rising sun.  We walked back down the shadier part of the road where it was cooler.  The day promises to be a hot one with the possibility of big thunderstorms brewing.  For now though it is peaceful and quiet but very hot for this early in the morning.  Many times during the summer the dog and I will walk south on the shady dirt road that goes to the pig farm to escape the heat.  I have posted a photo of the pig farm road showing the over hanging trees which make it a lot cooler down there.  There is a pecan orchard on the right with about 100 trees that are around 50 years old planted by a neighbor for the land owner.   He told me he planted the root stock in pots and then when the root stock was a couple of years old he grafted the 100 trees with I think 4 varieties of pecans.  Once the grafts had taken hold he went out and dug all the holes and planted the trees and tended them for a couple of years.  He told me that once the trees were started the land owner paid him $15.00 per tree.   That is a lot of work for $1500.00 but if you knew the guy who was doing it you would know that as far as work goes  this job was a  piece of cake for him.  He is quite a character and full of stories about this area as his family moved here in 1949.  As he tells it all the roads were dirt trails back then.  Anyway the orchard he planted is not tended now so it produces pecans erratically.  When there is a good crop the owner cuts the grass low and hires a machine to shake the trees to make the pecans fall and when they are on the ground a crew comes and picks them up with a vacuum harvester.  There is usually not even one pecan left on the ground after the machines get finished.  In bad years the owner still cuts the grass but he doesn't attempt to harvest any pecans.  The neighbors and I go and pick up the pecans by hand while crawling on our knees.  I take my my pecan cracker with me and crack them in the field so I don't have to deal with shells in the house.  I like to have pecans in the freezer over the winter.  They are a good snack and are delicious in blueberry muffins.  Now I am hungry so I have to go.  Thanks for coming by. Have a good Labor Day rest. 

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.