Pecans

Boy, yesterday was a BUSY day! I ran errands all morning, visited a friend with her new baby in the afternoon, and cooked and helped my hubby at night. The whole day slipped by without a lick of "exercise". Oh well. Much was accomplished anyway. We now have a new programmable thermostat installed! No more messing with the lever trying to get the house to cool off!! YAY!!! Now to figure out how to work it..... This morning I went outside to check on my plants (which are getting plenty of rain thanks to the nor'easter sending much clouds our way) and discovered 2 things: 1) Those pesky white rooted weeds that I rooted out of the middle tier are growing under the platform for the rain barrel on the top tier! After I planted all 3 tiers of the planter with vegetables, my husband decided it would be a good idea to move our rain barrel up high. So he built a little ledge on top of the end of the garden for it! I had to respace a strawberry plant for that thing! But hopefully it will come in handy when we need water later on. Anyway, the weeds are growing right up through the slats in the platform! It looked like a forest of white roots when I took a peek underneath. That is going to be difficult to weed out without destroying the plants adjacent. I did a little this morning, but then got distracted by discovery #2) Chica was trying to eat a pecan. That may not seem too weird, but I had not given it to her, nor had I ever fed her one before! How did she know that it was good to eat? A mystery.... I investigated (after I cracked it open for her :) We have a pecan tree in our neighbor's backyard that grows over into our backyard. We've been waiting for the fruits to ripen, but it is still loaded down with green buds. However, after walking around the shed to the back of the property, I noticed my neighbors walking their yard while intently looking at the ground. The pecan tree belongs to them, and they held something (I assumed pecans) in their hand, so I asked them what to look for. When pecans ripen and drop, they do not look like they do in the store. They have a dark outer shell attached, and they usually drop so hard that they are half-buried. The best way to find them is to feel them under foot. (good thing I had flip-flops on) So I proceeded to feel around and picked up a good double handful of the things. Hopefully they will be good eats for us tonight. That explained where Chica got the pecan, but how did she know it was food? She learned it from the neighbor's dogs! They get out there and find, crack, and eat the pecans along with their people! In fact, their little dog has gained quite a bit of weight from eating so many of the nuts :) Mystery solved, I came inside, washed my nuts ;) , and set them out to dry.