Moved but still in Limbo!

The long ride to our new home was .... long, but we are here safe and sound and the hardest part about this is realizing the fact that this is our new home.   We have envisioned this and talked about it forever and now we are actually here; a big sigh of relief, a scream of excitement or just a quiet moment to look back - not sure what to do.   

As overwhelming and scary as it may be, we are very happy and a thousand ideas and plans are running through our heads.   The dogs are happy as heck and we finally let Billie Jo go for a run without a leash - several times now and she is doing very well, comes when called and doesn’t wander off.   A wonderful sight to see on the lake is our little Pied-Billed Grebe that we saw earlier in the year and thought we lost to the hawks or turtles.

This little guy was swimming around all day long and at first I wasn’t sure what type of bird it was...it is very tiny and kept its distance from us.   I am thinking it came back to welcome us and I couldn’t be happier!

As I mentioned we did have Billie out and were tempted to show her how to swim, BUT when we went down to the lake we saw .....

and changed our minds!

Walking around the property it is obvious there has been no rain since we left and the neighbor did confirm this.   Everything is dry as a bone.   Now we are here I am definitely contemplating planting some spinach, peas and radish for a fall garden.   This will be a first since I have never planted a fall garden and the weather here like I mentioned is dry and hot so the timing of the plantings will be crucial.   Timed after the heat but enough days for good growth before the frost sets in.

I do have to report that one of the Huge Cushaw squash that we brought along with us went bad - well, half of it did.   Here is my thinking on this ... both squash I harvested and brought along were the first of the harvest and I was hesitant since I knew it might not be ready.   The first squash is still fine and storing well, but this second one was yellowing at the lower half and had a few soft spots and that happened quickly.   We cut it open and OMG - it was gross.   The upper half was hard and my theory is that the squash was only halfway mature and the lower half spoiled since it needed more time on the vine.   We baked up (covered with foil and set in 1/2” of water) the half that was good in the oven at 350 degrees for a little over an hour.   Tastes great .. mellow and slightly sweet.   These definitely are the biggest squash I have seen!