Late summer/early Fall

Everyday we are awed by something beautiful here, whether it's the sparkling pond, big ole hooty owls on the roof at night (I refused to put my tiny puppy down to pee until it flew off, LOL!), the flowers that started blooming after we got a couple rains, and the AMAZING sunrises.  Now, if you know anything about me, you KNOW I don't see sunrises often, but since I didn't want to find puppy puddles in my room, I was getting up the instant Miss Mia whined to go out, and I saw MOST sunrises for a couple months. 

The sunsets are just as wonderful.

The NIGHT SKY!!!  WOW!!  The stars are just amazing out here!  When the weather cooled down a little bit, we enjoyed fires in the firepit on the patio out back.

This was a November evening, I believe.  Notice the tank tops and the happy, contented sisters. 

Kern and I planted about 40 fruit and nut trees, both in front and behind the house.  That's a LOT of work!  The soil is a pretty dense clay out back, and I'm worried that with the winter rains we have gotten, the water won't drain and it will drown out my trees.  Keeping fingers crossed that they are ok. 

This is the Mayhaw tree we planted.  They are supposed to be water LOVING plants.  Man, we sure hope that's right, LOL!  (I did read that they love water so much that they are often harvested from boats, so I'm trusting this will be ok!  We DID plant it on dry ground, I promise.)

We have gotten a LOT of rain this winter so far.  Once the ground became saturated, the water had no place to go and we have had a lot of standing water this winter.  My pond has filled to overflowing a couple of times and we've had to keep the spillway cleared so it can drain.  Until the spillway catches up though, the lower part of my dock is often underwater for a day or two.  I'm just glad my pond is full again.

This is the front yard, the land between our home and the neighbor.  The water runs down his property and into my pond!