The First Snow of 2013-2014

The sky has been gray the last couple of days with off and on rain. This afternoon, the temps must of dropped just enough for the rain to turn to snow.

The Squirrels, Chipmunks, and Juncos are busy gathering up seed as fast as they can...

The Deer have come up to nibble on some spilled bird seed too...

I know this snow wont last long, and better weather is a head, but it's a cold reminder that winter is not far away.

I was really looking forward to a dry spell. I still have to get the bikes to town to top off the gas tanks and get the Sta-bil added. The lawn needs another cutting/leaf mulching, and I still have one more log rack to build.

I did manage to gather a nice load last week. I need to cut it to 16" logs, split and stack it! Those are mostly 4' lengths of dry Oak.

A few pictures from 10-21-13.... before the temps warm up and the snow goes away!

Fall Color Photos #3

It's amazing how fast the colors change! It seems like I was just saying how slow and unorganized the change was this year. Well I'd have to say that in my neighborhood, the colors may have hit their peak a few days ago. There are still lots of great colors, but some trees are bare or almost bare. A lot depends on where you are, and what variety of trees you're looking at.

A few Maple leaves from some of the different varieties of Maples in the yard.

This is from this morning. It's just a few feet into the woods on the south side of our home...
There's a neighbor over there somewhere. Their place is about 600' away through the woods.

Looking towards the west... This is a cluster of trees that's kind of a buffer between the house and the road.

Towards the north. This was a bright red Maple tree a few days ago...

I found some aerial shots of the area around our home. It's easy to differentiate the Oaks and Maples... The 2 houses across the street from us are used a "cabins" and only occupied a few weeks a year.

Being retired has it's advantages. I've been able to spend a couple hours in the woods behind the house. Without having to cut down any of the dozen or so standing dead Oaks, I was able to find plenty of downed stuff that was off the ground and dry. It looks like I'll have to build another wood rack in the garage for more dry stuff.

A Few More Fall Color Photographs.

We've had a lot of rain the last few days and it's knocked a lot of leaves off the trees. Overall, the color has probably past it's peak, but some of the trees still look good.

Some of the many Maples...

And another...

Even the Oak trees are turning...

The bright red Maple is almost bare... The one on the right.

As the leaves fall, interesting things are exposed...

Nancy has put the Halloween old guy out by the road. It's stuffed with paper and wired to a post. He's waving at the traffic, well, the 5 or 6 cars that drive by during the day...

All the Blackberries have been picked and the plants have started to go dormant. All the Ferns and other under brush are quickly wilting away. Soon the trees will be bare and Winter will arrive. :(

A Little Fall Color Comes to Cable...

I noticed that others are posting pics of their "fall colors", so I thought I'd add mine. This year, the colors don't seem a bright and vibrant as last year. The trees also seem to be disorganized this year... Some are slowly turning colors, some are still very green, while others have lost their leaves!

I cleared out about a 25' x 25' spot along side my driveway. I'd like to get the ground work done and get a garden in here before Winter...

Some of the trees are already dropping a lot of leaves...

Little Gems of Late Summer...

All around my property grow wild berries...

I'll be honest and say that, I knew we had Raspberries growing here, but I wasn't sure if the dark ones were Blackberries or not. I had to Google how to tell them apart. I found THIS interesting web site. It does a great job of explaining the difference.

As it turns out, we have Red Raspberry, Black Raspberry and Blackberry plants scattered all through out the yard. They're growing right along edge the driveway and in the open areas.

I have to say that the Blackberries are my favorite... They are SO sweet. As I was making this post, I finished off my small portion of them, and saved a handful for Nancy...

I've also spent some time over at the neighbors place. He's the one that's building the garage and had offered me any of the downed trees... Well, I've just about cleared the place out. There's one log still to get, it's probably 10" in diameter and maybe 16' long. It will have to wait for colder weather, there's a hornet's nest in the ground next to the log... I'll be patient and let the frost take care of the problem.

I figure I now have 7.5 "face cords" of firewood. That would make a single row stack, 4' high by 60' long. I only have a small amount left to split and stack. If I pull anymore wood out the woods this fall, I'll have to make another rack to hold it. Everything outside is getting full.

No Motorcycle content in this post, except to say that I took the Wr250X out for a spin. I had to run over to the local hardware store to get a couple things to fix my bbq grill. The grill needed so attention. So, I took it all apart, replaced the regulator, knocked a big spider out of one the cast iron burners, cleaned the debris out of the bottom, put it all back together and fired it up It will reach over 700 degrees F now!!!