Are you nuts?

That's the joke these days-- "Are you nuts?!" The reason being is that we've been picking pecans from our trees. There are two types on the property-- the small Texas-native pecan, and the "regular"-sized pecan that you find in the supermarkets around the holidays. Considering that we're not at the end of October yet, and the trees will continue to drop pecans till well after Thanksgiving, and also considering that we already have more pecans than we can possibly eat in a year.... what on earth are we going to do with all these pecans?

Our neighbor D tells us that by mid-November, our pecan trees will be filled with crows-- so many that the original owner of this property used to go out into the yard with a shotgun, aim it up into the trees "and let 'er rip," as the neighbor said. My husband, not being the shotgun type, bought an air-horn, and has used that from time to time for a few crows that were up in the pecan trees and making enough noise to disturb the peace and quiet here. The neighbor told us that the air-horn wouldn't work that well with a lot of crows, and besides, if we use the air-horn too early in the morning, he told us he'd be out on his own property with his own shotgun aimed in our direction. (We refrained from saying Are you nuts?)

My feeling is that with all the pecans out there, who cares if the crows and the squirrels get some? We can't possibly eat all of the ones we've already picked, and next year, we'll have more, and the year after that, still more. When we came to look at this house the first time, the owner told me to look in the freezer (which she was leaving here) so I could see how big it was inside. So of course I did, and how could I not notice all the zip-lock bags filled with shelled pecans. What on earth did she do with all of those nuts? There's only so many pecan pies you can bake... only so many batches of brownies.... only so much banana bread.....

When I told our neighbor D that the crows and squirrels have to eat too, he told me to remember those words on a November morning when there are six hundred crows in the pecan trees. "Get a shotgun," he said, "It's the only way." (Not hardly, in my opinion.)


One of our other neighbors has cows on his property.... eight big brown cows. Two of them found their way onto our property yesterday, and today as well. We don't know how they got over here-- either they jumped the fence or they found a loose spot in the fencing.... but they walked from their pasture to one of ours and discovered all the tall green grass by our barn that we're letting grow so it can be mowed down into hay bales and taken away. Both days, I called the neighbor to tell him that two of his cows were here, and both days, they followed him back to his own pastures.

This afternoon, that neighbor came by with a small bale of fresh hay in the back of his pickup truck. He left the tailgate down and had the hay right at the back of the truck. The cows were down near our pond, and he called them over to the fence and got their attention so they knew the hay was just at the edge of the tailgate..... and then he started driving up our hill and back to his own property-- with the cows trotting along in the road right behind the pickup truck, just inches from the fresh hay. If he had stopped short, the cows would have been nose-first into that hay bale.

The cows seem gentle enough, and they make the property look even more like a postcard, but the droppings they leave are huge, messy, and smelly.... and if we wanted cows out by the barn, we can go out and get our own. Which we won't, because then we'll have more mouths to feed. That's what our neighbor J told me when I asked her if she was going to get some chickens-- "I don't want anything else that has to eat or drink," she said. She and her husband have a little Yorkie, and that's about all they want right now that has to be fed, except for when their children and grandchildren come to visit.

We are having beautiful days..... lots of warm sun and gentle breezes. Spring days in late October, which is what we usually get at this time of the year. We did have some pouring-down rain a few days ago, and we're due for more of the same before the week is out, but for now, everything is green and pretty, warm and sunny.

Our neighbors tell us that Halloween doesn't bring trick-or-treaters out around here. Too far inbetween the houses, and there's not a lot of children out this way to begin with, and parents would have to drive their kids to the properties here if they wanted to go door-to-door trick-or-treating. It just makes more sense to drive into town for that-- more houses, less driving.

It doesn't seem like Halloween to us anyway, without a party planned for Saturday night. By this time, back in the old house, I would have had all the tables set up in the breakfast room and living room, all the decorations would be hanging from the ceilings and displayed all around the house. I did put up Halloween decorations here, but because this is a bigger house, the pumpkins and witches and black cats are more spread out..... and I didn't even put out the larger things that I always used for party-night.

Some of our Clear Lake friends have eMailed me and sent cards to tell me that Halloween just won't be the same without going to our old house in costumes and bringing a ghoulishly-devilish covered dish. When our old next-door neighbor V asked me "What will I do on Halloween now that you're not here to throw a party?".... I told her not to worry, that I had sent out invitations three week ago and told everyone the party would be at her house this year. Her answer to that was "Are you nuts?" (Then, of course, I told her I was kidding. But gee... what a great idea for next year.......)