So What IF IT's Friday the 13th

Saturday morning the crew all showed up at my house to help clean up the back section of my yard and load all the limbs, brush and whatever else I had cut earlier in the summer, into the dumpster that I had rented. There were stacks of cinder blocks from the foundation of an old building that burned long before I bought the property and other old junk that someone had piled at the edge of the woods and over time had become overgrown with vines. The guys pulled out a couple of small metal tanks and then another two and another two (six in all). We discovered that they were not tanks but old water heaters and they were all stacked on top of a cistern. In the spring I will see if I can get someone to come take down the few small trees that grow along the back of the yard and a very dilapidated old building that seems to be defying gravity in the fact it's still standing. All the stuff below was gone when they finished. WoooHooo!

I have to get out and make some more pics of the cleanup area. Maybe this weekend.

Fall Cleanup - Surprise Visitor

I haven't been around lately but have been really busy inside. Did manage to get out and do a little fall cleanup Saturday afternoon. While I was pulling weeds I found what I thought was a huge night crawler. This big old worm is very common in my flowers. I only had a glimpse of one end as he wriggled beneath some weeds. I grapped an end and pulled. He was quiet strong so I pulled harder only to have him get away from me. By now, it's a matter of getting him. I wanted a picture. Well, there is no picture and there was no night crawler. When I finally yanked him from under some weeds that I had pulled earlierI discovered he was a baby snake. Needless to say he is no more. I have no idea what he was but he was about eight inches long, kinda taupe or light brown in colour with a white underside. When I finished with him there could be no pictures to post. I'm not afraid of snakes, in fact, I have a resident black snake that sometimes lives in my cellar and he is welcome so long as I don't find mice around the place, but I don't like to have the unknown kind slitthering around my flower beds. If he was a "good" snake then I am sorry I smashed him, If he was a "bad" snake then, Oh well! I'm aware that if you find one small one there are usually more. I tried to look him up on line but didn't find him. There were no markings at all on him.

In all that excitement I did discover that I have a balloon flower blooming. I will try to post a picture and more later this evening. Also, my reblooming iris is still blooming. The temperature has been down in the forties here at night but tops out at around sixty in the daytime.