Here is a little something for you..

Homemade Pumpkin Pie Spice

I don't know if you have been to the store looking for pumpkin pie spice this year or not.  If you have you may have discovered that stores are really "proud" of it this year.  A small tin of it was about $9.00 at one store where I looked for it so I decided I would do a little online research to find a recipe for it.  You know this is the seasoning that makes the pumpkin pie, sweet potato casserole or maybe even a special beverage taste like the Holiday Season has arrived.


2 Tablespoons ground cinnamon
1 Tablespoon ground ginger
1 1/2 teaspoons freshly grated nutmeg
1 1/2 teaspoons ground allspice

makes about 1/4 of a small spice bottle

Another Foggy Fall Morning

Morning breaking through the pines to the west our house.

It was another foggy morning here in the woods.  Temperatures going down to the low 50s F. at night and the warming to 80s F in the day provide the moisture and perfect atmospheric conditions to create hauntingly beautiful morning sunrises, complete with a misty fog.  This morning was one of those mornings.  I captured this view of the woods to the west of our house while out on my morning walk.  

Our small family tractor waiting for
its next assigned task.

I have often said that those of us lucky enough to be born in Mississippi stay here because of the perfect weather we have during the months of April and October.  We endure long hot, humid summers and short but relatively cold, wet winters so we can enjoy the spring and fall months. These months are well worth the wait.  

By this time of  the autumn, I should be gathering firewood in preparation for the cooler months ahead but have had at least a thousand reasons to do almost anything else but that.  This weekend I will have to take the time to add to our stockpile of firewood.  The task will entail tuning up and sharpening the old chainsaw so the work will go quickly and safely.  In all we will use approximately two cords of wood and as of now, there is about a half cord in the wood pile.  Since Logan is playing in the High School Soccer Jamboree at FHS my time will be limited but, before the weekend is over I will put in a few hours of cutting, splitting and stacking of some of the downed, already dried timber around the place. Once this is done we will have a start on creating our store of firewood for the winter.

Until my next post...

Brief Notes from My Morning Walk

Highlighted in this photo you can see the first flight
of over 50 geese heading south
high in the clear autumn sky.

There was definitely a chill in the air this morning.  The thermometer on my front porch read 42 degrees F. at sunrise.  When the sunlight reached its arms over the trees the entire area glistened with the heavy, cold dew that had settled on the earth during the evening and early morning hours.

Yesterday when the clouds blew south, the sun quickly warmed the country side.  I stood in my driveway and heard geese far overhead.  They were not the four or five local geese that I see almost everyday flying from pond to pond but thirty or more flying high in the autumn sky, heading south to whatever destination their primal instincts and tens of thousands of years of internal memory drives them.

The oaks are beginning to show signs of fall color in the field in front of our house.

Observations of Children

Everyday on my commute to town I have a lot of opportunities to "people watch."  Considering I am in the Jeep for the better part of an hour and a half every day I am able to observe a lot of different behaviors while sitting behind the steering wheel of my old Jeep.  For the past several weeks I have been paying particular attention to the many young children I see either riding in the family vehicle with one or both of their parents on the way to school or sitting in their lofty perch inside a bright yellow school bus while on its morning route.

It is my observation that there are two distinctly different types of children.  Those that sit back in the seat and watch the world coming at them through the windshield as they move along their planned route to school and then, there is the other type.  They sit with their face almost touching the side window of their vehicle, peering out the glass, watching as they pass the sites along the way.  Considering my vast experience in the psychological and psychiatric fields--I have none in either field--my theory is probably very lame but, here it is.

I think the two distinct types of kids are, simply put, those who are content to watch and casually experience the world coming at them and those that don't want to miss a thing as they barrel headlong into the future.  I am making no judgement here. I think there is a place for every personality type in our great big world. In fact, it is probably the differences that keep us on track as we go spinning around the sun.  

Content to Move Casually Down Life's Road...

From my vantage point behind the wheel of my Jeep, I watch as children, from as young as three or four to as old as 15 or 16, ride by in cars, SUVs, pickup trucks and school buses, not to mention the occasional van.  The docile ones are resting comfortably, relaxing along the way as the driver of their vehicle delivers them to their destination.  They are involved in deep conversations about math and English, who "likes" who and what may or may not be on the lunch menu today. They don't bother to look from side to side because they know exactly what is along their way.  They have been down this path scores of times and there is no need to look at everything again.  Content that life is as it should be, today is no different and they move quietly through this day just like they do everyday, waiting for whatever is coming their way.

Living Life to the Limit, Embracing Every Day...

And then, there is the other type.  The type that I was and maybe still am.  The kid who sits up in the seat, stretching their seat belt to its maximum length, with his face glued to the side window so he can see everything along the way to where ever it is they are going.  Once at this destination he knows others are waiting to there to compare notes on their travels and he wants to be ready for the ensuing discussions.  It is almost like he has never been this way before when in fact, he has been this way scores of times, but the scenery is always changing and if he rests he knows he will surely miss something important as he passes it along the road to school.  It is almost like he is studying his surroundings so he can give a detailed report at the "debriefing" that will inevitably take place when he gets to school.  That kid, the one plastered to his window as his transporting vehicle passes me in the morning isn't about to miss a thing.  Nope, he is living life to the limit and if he could he would jump out of that car and join in the fun he is watching.  If I had to guess these children are a little difficult to awaken on school mornings, but are wide awake by sunrise on weekends.  They move slowly and mope and complain about being tired, but once the door opens and they move into the great outdoors and they realize the whole world is waiting for them, they embrace the day and take it on with gusto.  The world is theirs and they are not going to miss a second of  the fun it has to offer.  

The Days Are Getting Shorter

An early morning view where our driveway crosses the railroad on its path to the highway.

Sun rising over the trees as seen through the
Crepe Myrtle at the edge of our front porch.

My early mornings sitting on the front porch with a cup of coffee in hand are little cooler these days.  As I quietly sit and wait on the sun to rise in the east I have time to count my blessings and say thanks for my family, life and friends.  With the shorter days come the migrating birds and if we are lucky a rare glimpse at the migrating Monarch butterflies as they seem to float and swirl southward to their winter home in southern Mexico. For now I am content with the the occasional howl of a coyote in the distance and the arrival of the birds that are beginning to visit our feeders.

Peppers in our small raised-bed garden are ready to
be picked and turned into old fashioned pepper sauce.

Last night we had fresh collard greens, field peas and corn bread for dinner.  Good old southern comfort food seems even better this time of year.  Tonight we will be welcoming a traveler to our home.  Vanessa Kersting, our friend from Australia will get in tonight. She is already in town but will be coming to stay whit us, in her home-away-from home, for a little less than a week. I already know we will not want her to leave when she goes back to Australia.  I will write more about Vanessa later but so you will have some idea who I am talking about,  she is a Australian Christian music recording artist and now a member of our family.

Fall Gardening 

My simple welded wire greenhouse frame awaiting the first frost when it will be draped
with clear poly sheeting to protect my tender plants from the onslaught of cold and the
winter winds.

Our small fall kitchen garden  has been planted and beginning to show some signs that it might actually make it.  I am still having to water it regularly but I have late season summer squash blooming and actually coming to fruit.  There is broccoli, collards, mustard greens, artichokes (that are too late to make now) and spinach growing there.  If all is well, we can harvest squash until about Thanksgiving and the greens will produce throughout the winter months and into the early spring.

I have made a very simple greenhouse to cover the plants and protect them from the frost when it arrives in about three or four weeks.  I have done this in many different ways through the years and it always seems that that keeping the poly sheeting on it in the wind is the major problem. This year I made it very simple.  It is constructed of two pieces of 48 inch welded wire that I tied together with wire ties in order to make a tent-like structure out of it.  For now it is just keeping the deer and rabbits out of my tender green plants, but when the first threat of frost arrives I will drape it with poly sheeting which will be secured to the wire.  If my plan works, and it should, the plants will be protected from the killing frost for four or five weeks.  When the temperatures finally remain too cool, only the leafy greens will survive. It is my attempt to delay the inevitable coming of winter and the end of the 2012 gardening year.

Until next time...

October Mornings

Cool October mornings sometimes ride on a whisper of fog.  This morning did.  As the sun rose on our little place in the woods the clouds fell from the treetops and settled softly on the predawn landscape.  As quickly as it arrived it was gone taking the night with it.

Autumn Weather Has Arrived

With the weekend came autumn and all that goes with it.  A look at the calendar a couple of weeks ago would have confirmed that it was officially autumn but it wasn’t until last Friday that the weather verified it.  Friday evening the wind shifted to out of the north and clouds rolled across our little bit of the country and that is when the temperatures began to drop.  The sumac bushes have begun to take on their cloak of red leaves as a harbinger of the changing weather.  Saturday could not have been considered cold in the middle of the winter but for the first cool snap of fall it was pretty chilly.  The temperature dropped down into the upper forties (Fahrenheit) and remained cool all day. 

Fall flowers are everywhere but some are small and require
a little looking  to find.

This time of year is nice to pass away a few moments on the front porch, sipping coffee and watching the leaves change.  From there we can watch the hummingbirds feeding like there is not tomorrow when in fact it may be tomorrow that they decide to head south to Mexico or Central America or where ever it is they spend their winters. I am continuing to fill their feeders but know I should stop soon in order to let them go south soon.

 

On Saturday I moved some of our bird feeders, cleaned them out and got them ready for the all of the birds that will be migrating into our area with the change of seasons.  We have a small store of firewood stacked for winter .  I have found three or four downed trees to cut and stack to get us through the winter.  We primarily heat our home with wood and only supplement with LP when we absolutely have to.  Today, I have taken the day off to be with Logan and Holden and handle a few things around the house and none of which are getting done while I am sitting here banging on this computer.

I hope all is well in your “neck of the woods” and that you are enjoying the change of seasons as much as my family is.