Sunday, October 11, 2009

eating machines


these are the ones we picked up Saturday


In case anyone’s been wondering where I’ve been the last two days and why I'm not leaving my usual witty, to-the-point and poignant comments, it’s because we have had all four of the grandkids here at the country house all weekend and I have been in the kitchen.  My whole life the past two days has revolved around food; shopping for, cooking, and cleaning up after.  Four children equal about 8 adults when it comes to dirty dish production and food consumed.  


We did manage a trip to my sister’s to see the baby ducks, some outdoor work picking up all the fallen sticks and small limbs, chain-sawed a huge limb that had fallen and lugged it to the back and picked up the first haul of what I think are mature pecans while the kids alternately helped and played.  The husks are starting to open on the ones still in the tree.  I’ve actually been picking up fallen pecans for about six weeks or so so as to eliminate the obvious bad ones from the get go.  I hope we have a better ratio of good nuts to bad nuts this year (I know there’s three or four jokes hiding in there somewhere but my brain is still numb).



 chinese tallow tree leaf, what we called chinaberry tree as kids

Some trivia...


We had the highest low ever on record for the month of October, 82º last Wednesday night/Thursday morning.  Thursday it was so hot and humid it felt like high summer.  A cold front was headed our way and we had a strong south wind coming off the gulf.  The front arrived Friday, a short heavy downfall for awhile followed by steady light to moderate rain.  We had an initial immediate temperature drop of 20º and eventually down to 57º.  Though we have already had twice as much rain as is normal for this month, we’re 8” behind in our cumulative annual rainfall for this month.  


11 comments:

  1. Trying to beat the squirrels to our pecans.

    Very cool here in Arkansas after our almost five inches of rain.

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  2. Our summer was terribly rainy, and we had a sad tomato crop in our garden because of it :(

    Now we seem to be more on track, with 50s predicted all week, normal for here in New England.

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  3. Oh yes, Chinaberry trees! I still thought that's what they were called. See? I learned something here today. :-)

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  4. Picking up pecans.... do you have one of those handy sticks with the wire thingy on the end? My dad does, but won't let anyone else use it.... they might break it. He sticks strictly to that old adage- neither a lender nor a borrower be.
    We have hickory nuts here, but the shell is so hard I end up smashing the meat beyond redemtion. The few I have managed to open taste sort of like a black walnut.

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  5. I know you need the rain, so it is a God send, but did you have all four of your grandchildren trapped inside? LOL! My one grandson is a handful!

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  6. I do love the photos you show to accompany your very interesting posts...they're lovely.

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  7. As a Monday blogger I've simply assumed your witty and poignent comments have been as witty and poignent as ever...

    4 kids equals 8 adults? My one baby equals 20 adults in terms of food consumption, dirty dish production and noise.

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  8. Now that's busy.. I can only imagine.

    I'll take your heat wave in place of our frost warning any day. :)

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  9. So that's a tallow leaf. So beautiful.

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  10. Pecans are my favorite nuts. My son and his friend took care of the house and dogs while we were away this weekend, talk about dishes and mess. They left glasses everywhere, footprints, and trash. At least the dogs were well cared for. He's nineteen, but still a kid, so I know what you mean.

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