Our first fall in Cairo

Thanksgiving is just over a week away and we're getting ready for a visit from our good friends Carol and Mike. We are going to take a trip to Savannah for a few days. It will be our first visit there. We're planning to stay in the historic district even though it is more costly.

First Frost of the Season
This is our first fall here in south Georgia. It is definitely a lot colder than Tampa and there is more of a seasonal change. We got our first freeze last week, I think it was the 6th or 7th. The grass was all frosty white and it almost looked like snow. It got down to 29 degrees. We have not seen snow in many many years. It snowed one time in Tampa. The lima beans, green peppers and Jalapeno peppers all were damaged. We loved our fresh green peppers, they had such a wonderful smell that you don't get from store bought ones. The okra had been slowing down, so it's done for the year as well. We had so much okra that we were getting tired of picking it. It had to be picked every other day to avoid tough pods. The cottonwoods were also damaged from the frost but they are still blooming. The mums are fine, but a few other flowers were damaged. It has been in the upper 70's all week, and 80 yesterday but today it's raining and will cool down.

Blue Birds
We are working on attracting Blue Birds closer to the house. We have quite a few on the property and want some close to the house so that we can enjoy them. Al nailed a plastic dish on a pole near the house. We have been putting meal worms several times a day. When we go to put new worms in it, we call them and hope to get them to associate our voices to the worms. It seems to be working, after just a few days, we were getting them to feed from the worm dish. They seem to come shortly after we put new worms in. This is the method I was told to use. One man we talked to at Birdsong Nature center feeds them directly from his hand. That would be wonderful.

We ordered 5000 (we're optomistic) meal worms from Grubco on Monday and they arrived Wednesday. Great Service! They cost $20 and $8.95 for shipping. We ordered small ones and they are a little small so we will order large ones next time. I put them in a 5 gallon bucket with oatmeal and some apple slices. They will grow as long as they don't get too cool. I will bring them inside (covered) if the weather gets too cool. They don't get out of the bucket so I don't mind keeping them in the house.

Nancy (our Carolina Wren) keeps getting into the worm bucket. She and her children have learned this is a great place for a free meal. We keep the bird feeders filled with bird seed but she prefers meal worms. I don't mind her getting them but she can wipe out a supply of worms very quickly. I have to keep it covered part of the time.