Pecan season

Is almost here.

We lost a bit over half of the trees old enough to produce.
But at least one is giving it a go. :)

Thank God for all your blessings. Be safe and God bless.

The yard still looks the same

Figs are a little bigger.

Pecan flowers are numerous. I hope this bodes well for the coming pecan season.

Cucumbers and nasturtiums are coming along.

And it's a banner year for blackberry/dewberries, it would seem.

Apparently they will start reopening the economy. About time. I need my flea markets and farmers markets!
Be safe and God bless.

One creature I don't understand a need for

See the brown in the pecan tree? Webworms. Sometimes called Tent caterpillars. They love pecan trees. Annoying pests. They can kill a young tree, even though the Ag center will tell you they are not a threat.
Starting early this year.

Praying for all in the path of the storms this year. Take care. Be safe and God bless.

The rain finally stopped long enough to mow.

I know what you're thinking. Isn't rain good for all those pecan trees? Well, yes it is. And no, it isn't. The summer rain is especially good. But from what I have read, this years rain goes to next year's pecans. If it comes in October or November, then it is bad, because the pecans can get a fungus that ruins the crop.
But it also means last years rain...

I don't really understand; but here's hoping, God willing.

I thought the neighbors had planted beans, but hubby is pretty sure they planted cotton.

Just a few more pictures.

Going out of town this weekend for our once a month trip to the V.Watts Flea Market. Supposed to rain, but we are down to 50% from 80%, so that sounds like a "go" to me. :-)

You all be safe and God bless.

A short post

We ate some more great crawfish this weekend.

Next time I should get a picture of the Bananas Foster Cheesecake they have for desert. Oh wow! Good stuff!

It is Elderberry season. Well, almost. :)

It was pretty sunny this morning when I took the picture, so sorry for the quality. Maybe I'll get a picture later in the day next time.

The pecan 'flowers' have all turned brown and most have fallen off. This picture is from one of the older trees I call the Christmas pecan tree, because the pecans are pretty much always bigger and heavier than the others so they make good Christmas presents.

Hard to believe we have to wait until the end of September or October before we can eat them. :)

The magnolia trees are blooming everywhere down here.

All the blooms are way over my head so that's the best I could get.

And we found 3 turtles in different places in the pasture that were laying eggs.

You can click the pictures to make them bigger.

It is definitely summer here. Low to mid 90s for the last week and the next to come. Just means we are a week closer to fall. ;-)
You all be safe and God bless. ♥

Thought I should do another update.

The pecan season is upon us.

Pecan prices are the best we have seen since we retired. 80 cents a pound right now. pecans are so so, but the season is just starting.

While we were picking pecans, we saw this out in the pasture.

To give you an idea, I pushed it around a little and put my pecan picker on the ground beside it. The pecan picker is four feet long..

And a close-up of the 'head'.

I feel like it gives me a fair outline of the snake's head/nose/eye area. Or so it seems, haha. It was(is) probably a corn snake or rat snake. If so, neither is poisonous and actually good to have around.
Especially if I don't see it while it is alive. ;-)

The weather has been really nice. We actually had a couple nights in the 40s. Thought maybe "winter" was finally here; but nope. Getting another warmup. Not the 90s, hopefully. I think the last I read in Farmer's Almanac was wetter warmer. We'll see.

Since I never did the other update on our Florida trip, I'll add a couple pictures here. Sister-in-law and hubby took us fishing on a pier. The great 'blue' herons there are not really afraid of people. They will steal your catch or bait right out of your bucket if you're not careful. Some people feed them, which adds to the lack of fear.

Most of the people weren't catching anything. And when they were catching, They caught these little mango- or mangrove snapper, I think they were called.

The evening was gorgeous. Just enough breeze to cool the 90 degree weather. The moon was out early, and as the sun began to set, most people packed up to go home.

And it was just as well we left then, because we were barely into the truck when it started pouring!

But is was a good trip, even if we didn't catch anything.

You all be safe and God bless.

Not from Harvey

So we are discussing taking down one of the oldest pecan trees on the farm. And the one next two it.
I posted about this old tree losing branches here and here.

Well the other day, before all the rain from Harvey got here, this old tree lost another branch. This branch is about half of what is left of the old tree. I took these pictures a couple days ago. Just took me a bit to get a post together.

It just barely missed the new trees we planted a few years ago.

It was a long, tall branch.

I had just been reading up on "mushrooms growing on trees" the day before the branch broke. When it hit the ground, I thought branches would have been impaled in the ground. But they just shattered, too.

I had just mowed out there last week in preparation for pecan season, so thank you, Lord, for watching over me.

Yesterday I went out to mow some. You can watch the grass grow here, when it rains. And while I was out doing pecan trees, I saw this.

Those tire tracks in the grass, are where I went out to take pictures of the old Stewart pecan tree. That branch was green when those tracks were made. Needless to say, I did not get near the paper shell pecan tree. Paper shell, is just a term for how easy a pecan is to crack. No idea what type it really is.
Hubby has never liked that tree being right on the fence line. Now that it has started losing branches, and they are not farming back there right now, it might be a good time to take it down, too. Maybe we'll try to salvage some of the wood to make some tables or something. The old Stewart deserves to have some part of it saved.

Once they are down and disposed of, we'll plant another pecan tree that is more on our property. No pigs to fertilize the new one, but I think it will do okay.

You all be safe and God bless.

Slept right through it.

Must have had a heck of a storm Sunday night. This is what greeted us Monday morning.

Hubby is worried that losing two branches like that, so close together, means that he may have to cut the tree down. None of the trees we've planted in the last 6 years are old enough to replace it, but we wouldn't want a branch to come down on our heads while mowing or picking pecans.

And we're still cleaning up branches from the ice storm.

In other news, the red clover is blooming.

Can anyone give me a use for these weeds, other than poking you?

I guess if you were really talented, you could use the spines for a fish hook...

Got to make an unexpected trip to North Carolina, possibly this weekend; so if you don't hear from me for a while, that's why.

Hope you're all having a wonderful, warming up! week. ♥

It's pecan season again.

After all the green pecans that fell early, we are slowly finding 'ripe' pecans on the ground. Last we looked, the price was 45 cents a pound.
A couple days ago we had a really strange thunderstorm. Rain, lightning, but no thunder. How do you have a thunderstorm with no thunder? Was it a lightning storm? There wasn't that much lightning. The lack of thunder unnerved my hubby a bit, too.

The next morning we found this.

I was standing in that spot the day before collecting pecans.
The strange thing? That branch came from the other side of the tree!

Strange storm. As far we know there were no reports of tornadoes in the area.
Glad we planted those trees last year to replace this one.

Have a wonderful week!