Early November can you believe it?

Today is my son’s birthday.  When he was born 37 years ago it was a cold, snowy day and a few days later we had a big snowstorm.    This year it was mild and sunny and no snowstorms are on the horizon.  It’s hard to believe its November.  Most of the leaves are now gone, but the grass is green and I still have roses in bloom.

 I picked two 5 gallon buckets of apples off the last tree with apples remaining.  Some of them aren’t ripe yet but this tree ripens so late that many of the apples freeze on the tree before they are ripe.  So I pick them, some on the upper south side of the tree are ripe and the rest make good horse treats.  

 The apples are little because I don’t thin them and they have scab, but they make good applesauce, pies and apple butter.  My husband wants me to make some apple butter this weekend.  I will probably pick some more and sort them first.  The chickens have been standing on the fence rail next to the tree and picking their own apples so I threw them a few also.  And I gave my canaries inside a slice also.

 The apple tree is by our pond and the autumn olive bushes around the pond were full of robins migrating south and stopping to eat the red berries the bushes are loaded with.   They were singing and calling and it sounded like spring.  Our ducks finally found the pond- it is only about 50 feet from the pasture they roam in- and the 15 remaining ducks were all swimming around happily.   Momma duck and poppa duck knew about the pond but for a while no ducks went to the pond for some reason.    They stayed up in the pasture and played in the kiddy pool and their water dishes.

 It may have been that the buzzards finally migrated south and stopped soaring over the pond.  We had some turkey buzzards nest in our woods and a big group of them were always around.  They don’t normally take live prey but birds are conditioned to feel unsafe with big birds gliding overhead.  In the pasture they watched the buzzards warily and there were plenty of things to hide under.   On the pond they may have felt too exposed.  They don’t mind the big blue heron though - he was down there with them.

 Whatever the reason I sure appreciate the cleaner water dishes with less mud around them, ducks are so messy.  But they are fun to watch.