You Know Fall is Coming When...

It is puffball time already.  The air is cooler, the clouds are fluffier, the days are shorter and the puffballs are in the fields.  Last week we had the largest puffball I have ever seen in our bush.  It was the size of a beachball and weighed about 5 pounds.  It was also the tastiest muhroom we have ever had.  I wasn't expecting any yet, as they usually arrive in October, but I had spread some spores there last fall from an over ripe puffball. and with all the rain and cooler weather, it just grew.  Yummy.

When a Tree Falls...

Last Thursday we had a heck of a violent, but short, thunderstorm in our area.  Lots of very needed rain and tons of lightening.  I had just finished turning off and unplugging all the appliances, as the lightening was just overhead, when a loud crack and fireball happened at the back of the house and tree bark was flying everywhere.  Fortunately the lightening missed the house by 3 feet or so, but the lovely locust tree took a direct hit , splitting it in half from top to bottom.  It didn't topple over until Saturday when we had another, milder storm.  My clothesline melted and my whole electric fence system seems to be knocked out as well.  The energizer wasn't plugged in, for whatever reason, so it must have taken a hit through the ground system.  Who knows?  Anyway none of the animals were hurt and that's the main thing.