89 replies to this topic

[SunMan]

Fall here, with all the tell tale signs...

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[SunMan]

Best time of the year in this neck of the woods...

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[ski3pin]

Lovely Mr. Sun! Your photos tell the story.

[Mighty Dodge Ram]

Great shots. The smoke from the “nearby” fires really add some red and orange to our sunsets. 

[windy]

[Machinebuilder]

I forgot about this thread,

 

Fall has finally come to East TN.

 

2 weeks ago it was still 95 in the afternoon

 

1 week ago I turned the heat pump from AC to Heat (my house was down to 63)

 

This morning it was 37, I need to remember a jacket in the AM.

[ski3pin]

Note: I moved the recent power outages and preparedness posts to this new thread -

 

Dealing With Weather Related Home Power Outages

[Foy]

The arrival of tropical weather systems, one after another, is a sign of early Fall in the southeastern US.  What's left of Olga comes through in the morning, the 3rd or 4th such visit this year.  The arrival of mid-to-late Fall is signaled by the nonstop banging and clanging of hickory nuts (early) and acorns (later, and mostly from white oaks) hitting the roof, polycarbonate skylight , camper trailer, and car the and trucks in the driveway.  It's definitely a mast year in this part of NC, at least for the oaks.  The hickories were thankfully light.  And that's OK by me--those dang things will raise a knot on your noggin if they catch you just right.

 

Case in point on it being a mast year for the white oaks:  I spent a good hour today with my backpack leaf blower wrangling a nearly continuous carpet of acorns off of the moss matting beneath the four most productive white oaks in the front yard.  My system is to blow them downhill to the red brick pavers forming my front entryway sidewalk.  I can't stop hearing the theme song from "Rawhide" in my head as I "drive" the acorns. Once I shovel them up, I wouldn't be surprised to have a half-full 75 gallon trashcan of them. 

 

And next up are tons of oak, hickory, maple, gum, poplar, and beech leaves.  Lovely in rich colors on the trees, but when down on the ground killing the grass and shrubs, not so much.  We're not very fussy when it comes to landscaping, but what little grass and shrubs we have on an acre and a quarter, we want to keep, so off go the leaves out of the azalea and rose bush beds, off of the grass, and into the "natural areas" which comprise a good 2/3rds of our yard.

 

Oh, and the professional beaver trapper came today and set 3 traps in the creek behind the house, at the head of the pond.  The furry rascals are back in our drainage and very active, but not for long. Last time they established residence in the creek, they killed 6 or 8 trees, mostly worthless sweet gums and a couple of poplars, but including two dogwoods planted by my late father over 50 years ago (we bought our house from my parents nearly 30 years ago and have now lived here for longer than they did).  Sorry Mr. Beaver, if you mess with my Daddy's dogwoods, you've worn out your welcome.

 

Our city is infested with beaver, and here we are just 6 miles as the crow flies from the state Capitol building, smack dab in the middle of an urbanized county of nearly 900 square miles area with a million residents.  The trapper, a newly minted NC State University wildlife management graduate, pointed out a fresh buck deer scrape I hadn't seen earlier as we walked down the hill to the creek. Beaver and muskrats in the pond, blue herons and egrets down there too, whitetail deer moseying back and forth along the bank of the pond, red fox, coyotes, wood ducks, hawks, owls, and more domesticated Canada geese than you can shake a stick at.  It's a regular Mutual of Omaha's Wild Kingdom down here. 

 

Hey, I just saw Marlin Perkins!

 

Foy

[ski3pin]

Rolling, rolling, rolling..................

 

couldn't resist. Great story Foy!

[Wandering Sagebrush]

Don’t try to understand em, just rope em, throw and brand em....

 

I agree, a great story, and I don’t blame you for taking revenge on the beaver.  An heirloom tree is a treasure.

 

I hope you said howdy to Marlin for all of us out here.

Rolling, rolling, rolling..................

 

couldn't resist. Great story Foy!