Beautiful Fall Day

Al is getting ready to go back to Tampa tomorrow to do his Pest Control. He still has Arrest A Pest Exterminators. He is also starting Buzz-Off Pest Control in Georgia. We will continue to go back and forth for a while since the economy is not doing well.

We have many Pecan trees on our property. Al babied about 3 of them all year, with extra water and fertilizer and he even raked up all the leaves, but we still have the Scab that effected our Pecans. We had a lot of them on the tree but they turned black and fell off. We rode the the golf cart over to the neighbor and he had some nice large (and tasty) pecans from his trees. I know he didn't give them any care. We don't know what happens with ours but this is the 2nd fall we have had no pecans.

We pulled up the Wisteria bush/tree,that had fallen after Tropical Storm Fay dropped 26 inches of rain in 3 days. It is our favorite and was absolutely gorgeous the first year we came up and bought the place. It was a good part of why I fell in love with the property. It was grown to be like a tree with many branches coming up to an umbrella shape. It was covered with purple blooms that were so fragrant. I couldn't take my eyes off of it. We got it back up and Al has put a brace in to keep it up. I don't think it will die but am not so sure it will ever have the same shape. We'll see.

The Chipping Sparrows are back in mass. They come for the winter, eat us out of house and home and then leave. They usually arrive with the Gold Finches. I haven't seen the Gold Finches yet. They do not have the pretty gold color this time of year. They usually are just starting to get pretty when they leave us in the spring. That doesn't seem fair.

I am going to make some suet for the birds tomorrow. They really love it. The recipe I use is:

1 cup peanut butter
1 cup vegetable shortening
4 cups cornmeal
1 cup white flour

mix well
you can put some out and the rest in the refrigerator

You can either use a suet feeder or just mash some into holes in the trees. They will find it.



We haven't planted a fall garden yet. We just haven't seemed to find the time. We did spread some compost on our upper garden and some of the blueberries. We may try to plant some broccoli, collards and English Peas. I do have an Earth Box on the back porch. I have basil, rosemary, spinach and some merlot lettuce. I probably have too much planted in that one box.