My First Tractor Pull

During the time that Mike and I have been together we have both had a number of "firsts". The first (and last) time Mike had a Krystal burger was on a road trip with me. The first time he had champagne with cranberry juice in it was with me. Mike is the first man I have ever dated who had tattoos and totes more than 1 handgun at a time (ask me if I feel safe with Mike). Mike made me my first batch of fried apples with figs. Mike was the first man I met who could do a rib roast on the grill for more than 6 people or as few as 2 and have it come out perfect every time. Mike is the first man to make me homemade biscuits and then top them with sausage gravy he made from scratch. This weekend I was treated to two more "firsts". For lunch I had Brunswick Stew that Mike had purchased from a local church. It was really good. The second "first" for this weekend was going to a tractor pull. The day was perfect for sitting outside and watching the show.

One of the first contestants was this red tractor.

Behind him was this nice John Deere.

Some where down the line came this guy,,

As the weight and drag increased his front tires started to come off the track,,,,

This was the end of his pull.

Then came the modified tractors,,

These babies have Chevy or Ford V-8 engines and are loud.

Home Wrecker was another modified.

We stayed until the end of the first round of all classes had pulled then grabbed a burger and a soda and headed home. I am looking forward to my next tractor pull. Mike has even suggested we go to a modified lawnmower race one day. Sounds good to me!

Autumn Afternoon-Evening

As I said in a previous post, I love this time of year. The other day we headed out to the back deck to enjoy the end of the day. It was just about 50 degrees, sunny and a light breeze.

Mike, my polar bear, was happy in shorts, a t-shirt and flip-flops sitting in front of the fire. We both had our wine to quench out thirsts.

I, on the other hand, being an island girl, was in sweatpants, house slippers, a thermal top and a light jacket.

Lili loved being out side and worked on her stretching exercises,,,just in case anyone was up for a game of fetch.

I turned the fountain on knowing that soon I would need to drain it to protect the pump from freezing temps.

As the sun was sinking into the sky I snapped this shot.

For not having a lot of color on the trees we have a good amount of leaves on the ground.

Kele came over looking for some love.

Tiffany walked around the chiminea a few times and then laid almost under it. Every time I tried to get a shot of her lying down she jumped up and moved.

Kele has learned that by laying behind the chiminea she can still get warm but does not have to worry about the fire popping and embers landing close to her.

After awhile Tiffany got tired of laying on the deck and got her daddy to pick her up and warm her while she dozed.

Once the sun set I plugged in the Halloween lights. What a neat way to spend a afternoon and part of an evening. Enjoying the fall weather and some wine with the love of my life and our 4-leged girls.

I Love Fall

Fall is, without a doubt, my favorite time of the year. The days are cooler, football is back and the world comes alive with color before the winter sets in. Along the fence line between our home and our neighbors there are some sugar maple trees. Here at the lower elevation they are just starting to get their color on.

While pulling up the flowers in front of the rock wall I came across this praying mantis.

I took a second picture in an attempt to get a better shot. Mike came out to see what I was doing and picked up the critter. He flipped it over and declared that it was really a she and was ready to lay her babies so he gently put her back down among the verbena.

The front area with some of the flowers gone looks bare. Since I took these photos we had a night in the 20s so a whole lot more of these plants need to be pulled.

Next I headed around to the back of the house to pull up the last of the watermelon and cantaloupe vines. I came within 18 inches of walking into this spider and its web. YUCK!!! When I took this photo I zoomed in on the spider. It and its web were actually about 8 feet away from the back of the house.

After I had finished the yard work I did some yard play. I put fake spiderwebs on the front fence and then I added a couple of tombstones.

I found directions and then Mike made a true hangman's noose for me so I could hang our skeleton. We are thinking about adding a full size mummy next to him.

Little Miss Muffet

Little Miss Muffet Sat on a tuffet, Eating her curds and whey; Along came a spider, Who sat down beside her And frightened Miss Muffet away. Cute nursery rhyme, but in realty if Miss Muffet was living here she would have had a breakdown by now and would be enjoying life in a padded room. According to local sources, due to the wet summer, we have been overwhelmed with spiders. Some are HUGE!! You cannot take a stroll through the yard or orchard without a stick in your hand to swat away any webs. If you look in the top-center of this photo you can see part of a spider web.

Look again,,,that is not a light colored branch coming straight down.

Now these are not your normal black and yellow garden spiders. Those guys built several webs among the branches of the fig tree. These HUGE spiders are over achievers. One morning I found a web that stretched from the fig tree in the lower left corner of the photo over to the trees on the right hand side of the photo. Thankfully this web was just above my head so I didn't walk into it.

One night they tried to surround us. This guy was building his web from the chimney down to the roof and then over to the 10' x 12' gazebo we have on the back deck.

Meanwhile, his relative was behind us, hanging out in the trees, just waiting. I highlighted him on his web. Not pictured was the poor relative who spun his web in the corner of the sliding door onto the back deck. Same day we found him, we found two more of his relatives had spun their webs on our gazebo. Word of advice, NEVER, EVER, hit one of these HUGE spiders with a stick. The sound is sickening, sort of like hitting a very ripe grape or small tomato.

On the bright side, I found this empty bird's nest on one side of the house. Mike looked at it and said it was a Wren's nest.

I loved the streamers they used. Maybe a new family will come and use this nest and eat some of the HUGE spiders,,,,one can only hope. And in addition to the spiders the stink bug population is out of control.

NOTE: As I am finishing this post Mike and I can see the start of a new spider web that goes from the roof of the Honda which sits in the center of the driveway, over to a cedar tree at the front walk. Thankfully we noticed it before I take the girls out for their next walk.