Helping Wildlife As They Feed Us

 Everything is food for something.

 We celebrate when the crops are good in the wild.

The acorns had a spotty yield this year, 

some trees had them, some did not.

Deer, squirrels, wild hogs and a variety of animals eat acorns.

In turn something eats them

and so the food/life cycle goes.

I found evidence some squirrels had been enjoying the acorns.

They also enjoyed the walnuts and chestnuts we took to the woods last winter when their food supply was low. We had an abundance.  They did not. This week we ate some squirrels. We are grateful the land feeds us in more ways than one. The food chain/life cycle continues.

Falling

Pecans and Black Walnuts

not these two trimming limbs and patching the roof

after the near accident Thursday.

A Crisp Wind Blows...

through the valley today raining leaves sideways. The trees rustle as if to say, "No, it's not time!" Another season begins.

The "falling back" of the clock has timed itself well. Food is falling. We gather walnuts, pecans, hickory nuts, pears, chestnuts, persimmons, and pawpaws. Preparing them for storage and use like the generations before us.

The figs frozen by the cold nights display the color of their last hurrah and drift to the ground.    Green still fills the valley as the hillsides are in constant color change.  Once again the valley shall shelter and feed the fifth generation of our family as they have fed the inhabitants that have gone before.

I believe the valley smiles.

We are home.

Nuts!

Walnuts,

pecans,

an acorn,

and me.

Fall is in the air...

The last few mornings have been cool but hopefully we are far from a killing frost. The garden is still producing okra and a few cucumbers.

The chestnuts are falling along with the walnuts, persimmons and pecans. Marcy has planted winter greens where we cleared for two purposes, food and erosion control.

Do not know if someone will be buying walnuts this year or not. That was always my spending money growing up. We had to pick them up anyway and if we sold them we got some pocket change. I am not so eager this year to pick them up since I am a year older and a year stiffer. Bev and I picked several feed sacks full this afternoon.

Last year we got forty dollars for a bed load. It did fill up all the equipment with gas...last year!