The leaves are off and the woods are naked, but I'll endeavor to keep this a PG-rated post. We got a dusting of frozen precipitation this weekend. It put a whole different look to the old homeplace.
Denise had organized the trash piles and raked up the indestructible magnolia leaves prior to the cold weather.
I did re-fill the birdfeeder Thursday before the freezing weather hit, and there was an absolute frenzy of eating going on the next morning. We had a bunch of cardinals taking advantage of the energy-rich black sunflower seeds.
Out front we had some kind of sap-sucker or something on the sick-amore.
This afternoon, I switched to the telephoto lens and sat on the porch enjoying (much) warmer weather and blue skies. Even old Buck was dozing in the sun while I waited to add to my "critters from the porch" collection.
The feeding frenzy had slowed down, but a variety of small birds took advantage of the nice weather to load up on calories.
I'm no bird expert, but we had some kind of finch, chickadees, a wild sparrow of some type (dusky?), a Carolina wren, and a titmouse.
I've also seen some big, full plumage blue jays and some wood thrushes, but they didn't show while I was siting there. The pileated woodpeckers have also been hanging around, but not while I had the camera ready.
Nothing exciting on the trailcams (read - no big game). But I'll keep up the feature with what I've found.
The Scott-cam out back continues to hang up (feeding failure). I spin some corn by hand when I make my weekly check. Even the coons are trying to fix it.
I brought a consultant with me last weekend, but it didn't help.
There was even an alien intervention (pretty spooky, actually) that interrupted a coon feast.
And this is either my disappointment at a lack of deer pictures or my attempt to be a poster child for a constipation advertisement...either way, it was quite chilly that morning.
We're supposed to get some more of this frozen weather mid-week, so D has prepped the remaining bedroom for painting. We've never been closer to getting this place in shape!
The past year was certainly an eventful one for us, with a string of significant decisions. 2014 will be the year we begin to experience the consequences of such...for good or for bad. (I'm predicting good, by the way).
To finish up the old year, we had a very nice Christmas dinner with Big Daddy and TMom & Papa T. I think Chris got most of the pictures, and I forgot about getting them before he left. Joe and Brian were also there for Christmas day...it was a good time...especially after Big Daddy loaded everyone up with eggnog (and Wild Turkey).
Chris and family headed for Corpus the weekend after Christmas, and Denise made a pass through the house to give it a spruce-up before Joe came back with the kids for the New Year's week. She found this under our bed very close to where Maggie was watching TV. hmmm - we might have a little chocolate pack rat on our hands.
Anyway, we took advantage of the weather and the energy of youth to do a little demolition after Joe's bunch arrived. The pump shed full of junk, the old metal shed by the power pole, and the mystery pen in the back all fell to the sledgehammer and crowbar. We even started clearing the overgrown area around the old pen, including the fence on 3 sides.
Here's before and after on the pump shed area...
...and the mystery pen. You can barely see the trunk of the big oak just to the right of the pen in the first picture.
Of course we replaced this with an unsightly pile of non-burnables.
It wasn't all work while they were in town. Jack's very first shot with his Christmas Remington 870 resulted in a fat woodchuck...at least it looked like one.
Audrey practiced her decorating skills and made a scrumptious cake.
We took a trip to the fireworks stand for the kids to spend their Christmas money and entertain us by the campfire on New Years' eve.
We also took a trip to the catfish pond on a nice sunny day between cold fronts. There was a Papa-imposed limit of 5 fish apiece, and the three of them took turns on two rods. Alice caught her fish quickly...she said she never waited more than a minute for a bite.
Audrey really had to fight for hers, but she persevered and brought hers to the bank also.
While he didn't catch the fastest or work the hardest, Jack caught the biggest at 7 lbs 4 oz.
They ended up with 51 pounds of catfish; Joe cooked some up for us that night and took the rest of the fillets home to experiment with the kids on some recipes he wanted to try.
Denise and I had a quiet weekend after I worked 1/8 of my remaining weeks in Houston. We mostly cleaned up some more around the old pen area. Denise raked up the detrius of autumn and hauled it to the edge of the woods. She says the little tractor beats the heck out of a wheelbarrow.
We'll close out with Audrey's decorated red velvet cupcakes and a special Holiday message to those who want me to work a little longer.
Sorry so long, all caught up now. I'll try to show some pictures of some of the finished rooms in the house next time. Hopefully Denise will knock it all out before I retire, and I can start on the list of deferred projects that has been building since the summer.
