It's Fall Ya'll

Now that summer is officially over, it is time to move on to the next season of the year called Fall.

I'm still wearing my flippers and shorts.  Tried wearing a pair of blue jeans but with all the mugginess hanging in the air, I converted to a pair of jean shorts instead.  Before I could get my trusty KIA loaded up for a road trip to Inverness, I was already breaking out in a sweat!  Humidity in the South only goes away briefly during the coldest of days.

 I had a delivery of benches to make to one of my favorite "cousin-in-laws".  She wanted them to put around her fire pit.  There is nothing more relaxing than spending time with family and friends around a fire.  Someone will show up with the fixings for smores (graham crackers, marshmallows, and Hershey bars).  You sit back, prop up your feet, wrap up in a blanket, and join in on the story telling and laughter.  You have to remember to rotate, because one side will be fire and the other will be ice.  I have crawled in the bed a many a night to be greeted by an ice cold butt when I go to snuggle!

As you reach the edges of the Delta, you can see that the changes of fall are beginning.  As you drive you can see the tree lines begin to change color.  Its a much smaller seasonal change that what you get in the mountains, but its there, if you take the time to look.

A common comment you always hear about the Delta is that it is so flat, and there are very few trees.  That is now changing.  The ground is still flat, but in tracts of land that had been cleared years ago to grow soybeans, acres and acres of hardwood trees are being planted.  This is one of those government funded projects to reforest wetland areas.

The fields of corn, rice, soybeans and cotton are much different now.  Gone are the lush green fields of spring and summer.  The tall rows of corn stalks have already been harvested, combined down and now mulch that will add nutrients for the next planting season.  The rice, which turns from lush green to a golden wave as its blown about by the breeze is gone too.  There are some soybeans still out there.  What was once lush in an army of green leaves are now individual stalks  standing at attention in single file.  The combine will be here shortly.

Cotton, which was once the mighty "King of the Delta", is becoming harder and harder to find. The costs of production have driven farmers to other crops or out of business all together. In past years, you would immediately know you were in the Delta just from the sight of  miles and miles of cotton bolls that have burst open with the South's version of "white powder".  You could look on the side of the road and see what looked like road litter all along your path.  This was not your average highway trash.  This my friend was the "yellow brick road" to the cotton gin!  The cotton trailers would be stuffed over the top with the pickings of the day, and the road would get a coating from the loose cotton fibers that would blow off the top.  These days, cotton is either  stacked in modules or rolled up like hay bales and are picked up by a gin truck for processing.

Some farmers are already plowing their fields into neat rows for next spring's planting season. In the old days rice fields would be burned off to get rid of the straw.  But now, with green practices, are reseeded in the spring using "no-tillage" planting. Some corn fields are replanted in the same manner.  Now that the row crop harvest season has come to an end, the Delta folks turn their attentions to a different harvest season, deer hunting!  Colder temperatures will be here.  Thanksgiving will lead into the Christmas season, and then spring will be just around the corner, and the cycle of colors will begin once again.  And yes,  Flip flop weather will be here again before you know it!

Happy Fall Ya'll!