Happy Thanksgiving

We're heading to Tampa as soon as we can get motivated. We wanted Mom to come up here but Steve has to work tomorrow and they couldn't work out the logistics.

We awoke to 41 degrees but it looks like we may have some sunshine today...finally. We've had cloudy weather for about a week. No rain, just dreary clouds.

We had a visitor yesterday...an elderly Beagle. He had on a collar and was fat so we think he has a home. Hope he goes there. We don't need anymore animals.

We're bringing our little kitty Socks with us due to her health issues. She eats constantly and is always ravenous but is extremely skinny. She is getting old so we don't think she will be around too much longer. She's energetic, still has her beautiful black shiny coat, but just doesn't put on any weight.

We'll head to Tampa just as soon as we get a few more cups of coffee. We bought a Sirius radio for Al for his birthday so at least we'll have something to listen to.

Cool Nights & Warm Days

The temperatures have been getting down into the low to mid 40’s at night and warming up into the upper 70’s during the day.  Perfect weather.   The yard and plants are still green and pretty.

close up of a Confederate Rose

Confederate Rose

Canna lily and Goldenrod

 Bleeding heart

Back yard view

Pumpkin patch  (unsuccessful)

We planted pumpkins in early September which was about 30 days too late. They grew nicely and flowered but all the pumpkins either fell off with rotted ends, or were eaten by critters.

Our resident Mockingbird-Ivan the Terrible

Our first Ivan was really mean but we found out that once he raised his children for the year, he and his mate moved on and left the kids to fight it out as to who got to stay here as the new dominant Mockingbird.  The 2nd generation one had a much better disposition and all the successors did as well…until this new guy came around.  He is almost as mean as his great grand dad.  The first Ivan terrorized all the other birds and chased them from ALL of the bird feeders.  This one is doing that as well and we don’t have nearly the birds at our feeders anymore.  I just sit back and smile though because I know now that come spring when he starts raising his several batches of babies that he will be kept very busy feeding the squawking young Mockingbirds.    I never saw such good parents or dependant babies as the Mockers.  He’ll get his payback then!

Hurricane Ida

A late season hurricane formed down in Central America and headed north, right towards our area.
We've been watching the forecast the past few days, and it had been predicted to weaken due to some shearing winds. That was certainly a relief for us.

It made landfall as a tropical storm, on Dauphin Island, Alabama. This is very near the western Florida panhandle. It's predicted to turn and head east and right towards us. We are currently getting some pretty good rain and more is predicted all day. The tornado threat is minimal, thank goodness. The storm appears to be falling apart as it is now downgraded to a tropical depression.
The gutters are leaking and water is dripping/running right by the house. Not a good thing. I though we had them all taken care of, but I guess not. It's a constant battle at this house to keep the gutters cleaned, up and working properly. We never had such a problem in our Tampa house but we have a lot of trees with a lot of leaves. Al worked on revamping the gutters yesterday but he didn't get up on the house and clean them off. I guess that was a mistake.

The grass is nice and green and with this rain will continue to grow.  Al got the pasture area (about 5 acres) mowed again for the last time of the season.  It only gets mowed about  4-5 times a year.

So far only about 1/2 inch of rain.