Finally, our Florida weather is getting just a tiny touch of cool in the morning air. Mowing was first on the agenda today, starting with the pecan orchard. Just a little background, ten years ago my husband and I planted 40 trees, bare root. Having no idea what that actually meant, when we picked up our trees. Bare root ended up being a stack of long sticks with two or three small roots attached.
All I could think when I saw what bare root meant was that someone had to be kidding. They weren’t. The sticks went into the ground in very big holes and slowly turned into trees. Year after year, I waited for my trees to have pecans. Not this year became a reality.
Surprise!!! This morning, when the golf cart roof touched a lower limb there was a distinct thump. When I got out to see what I had hit, leaves don’t thump, I was eye to eye with my first pecans. It’s a good thing I don’t have neighbors since I was definitely doing a happy dance in the orchard. The dogs joined in without having any idea what was happening. Even the donkeys added their voices to the racket I was making.
I love surprises, even simple ones especially since I am working on the fifth book of the Live Oak Series. The small town life in an agricultural community is not as simple as it might appear. A farmer trying to get an orchard bearing a crop when planted from bare root is clearly not a matter of waiting a few months. The challenge of the life is intricate and demanding. Living it, even in my small way, has its moments. Today was a good one. The two trees I lost in the first part of the year due to high storm winds is one of the not so good ones.
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