I guess this is weather related, just had a flock of maybe 50 or so geese fly over the house heading south.

@chris1948 a couple of years ago I heard that a lot of Snow Geese were being seen at Anahuac National Wildlife refuge, so I went out to see if I could get any good pictures. After driving around for about a couple of hours, I was about to give up when I saw this cloud headed in my direction so I pulled over. It was a flock of Snow Geese and they landed right in front of me. I sat there watched and took pictures for an hour and they were still landing. Here is a video I shot. Watch to the end where I pan across the whole flock.

https://youtu.be/xiGgqIx1R0k

That video is great Jay!

Holy cow Jay, that is some gaggle of geese

I used to hunt geese outside of Houston, towards Nederland in fact. I loved those hunts. Geese are hard to bring down though. We hunted next door to a refuge and at daybreak, the noise they made as they flew from the refuge to forage for food was incredible. There would be tens of thousands rising at one time, and it sounded like they were all honking.

@drdawg I have profound hearing loss and at that time I had no hearing aids, so the world was mostly silence for me. But let me tell, I had no difficulty hear those geese. I'm guessing their were was at least 10,000 that day.

What an amazing experience and so lucky to get it on video!

So far, AFAIK, we've had continuous precipitation since Thursday night...there's only 3 1/4" in the gauge, which hasn't been emptied. Of course, much of it has been a slow drizzle. I've heard of some areas getting a lot more than we've gotten and of course, some minor flooding. BTW, the extended forecast shows 27° here for next Thursday night/Friday morning, followed by 32° the next night. That would be our first freeze since last spring. although we already had a close miss a while back.

@LindaTX8 - dang it! I'm not ready for a freeze next week. I've been so spoiled by our unusually warm weather that I'm going to have to do some hustling during these increasingly shorter days.

Which reminds me - does anyone have any suggestions re acorns? Not only do I have large oaks but my neighbors do as well. This has been a bumper crop year for acorns and I'm talking BIG acorns. Is there a good/easy/fast way to clear my yard of acorns?
I am totally serious in asking this. I need to put down some mulch in pathways but don't want to cover up the acorns. They are slippery, especially when wet, and I think putting mulch on top would make things worse. What to do?

Hmm...well, I know of one way, but don't think you'd like it. See, you get a whole herd of hungry feral hogs and invite them to your yard. They love acorns! But then they'd tear up your yard very, very bad...there's bound to be other things besides acorns they want. So forget that one!

Other than raking them up, my only impractical suggestion would be to borrow a couple of pigs. With amazing luck, all they would do is "pig out" on the acorns. In other words: I have no idea what to do.

We had only had about 2" of rain by this morning; I don't know how much we got today but it was our rainiest day.\

Edited to add that great minds think alike!

tx_flower_child said: dang it! I'm not ready for a freeze next week.

I know what you mean. I have a bunch of Hibiscus to bring in and no place put them. I'm going to have to work my tail off this week to get ready, if I can get out of this procrastination mode.

When it is only going to freeze overnight, I usually just tip my Hibiscus pots over and cover the recumbent plants with a canvas tarp. The ground stays warm enough to keep them from freezing.

porkpal said:When it is only going to freeze overnight, I usually just tip my Hibiscus pots over and cover the recumbent plants with a canvas tarp. The ground stays warm enough to keep them from freezing.

I may have to try that. We rarely ever get freeze that last more than a few hours.

@porkpal, that is a great tip

Ok you smarty plants. I might live in the city but I do know that pigs and feral hogs enjoy acorns. I also know that goats will eat 'bout anything but don't know if they specifically like acorns.
I have already bagged up 3 of the large lawn/leaf bags with acorns and that was from an area totally approx. 5 sq ft.
Well, supposed to rain more tomorrow so not much I can do right now.
Most of other outdoor tasks are already done. Or at least I think they are. Main thing I'd like to do is mush the potted plants into a huddle so they keep each other warm. I think I only have a few left that need to come in, if I deign to bring them in. Have less indoor real estate to use compared to years past. Have a nice new table that nothing is going on!

Of course we can't really predict the weather much more than the forecasters can, with apologies to any of y'all who are in that profession. The nice thing is that the rain should help keep the temps up a degree or two.
Yawn. I'm boring myself by now so it's time to say goodnight.

Our neighbor blows the acorns into the street. The cars run over them, they turn to powder and blow away. We just blow them into a pile and scoop them into the trash can.

I wonder why my oaks don't give me acorns? One tree did during the drought once. Consider myself lucky, I guess not to have to clean them up or step on them? The Sweetgum balls are bad enough.

I'm not liking all the wet cold we've had in the Houston area this weekend. It will let up and then possibly freeze@week's end. I guess winter is here. I whined about it being hot last summer. I guess it's time to whine about being cold. Ha! If fall and spring would last a little longer... But then it wouldn't be Southeast Texas. Did the Panhandle get snow as predicted?

Everything is safely tucked away in the greenhouse. Heater is in place. Ahhhhhh! To be one of my plants!

I think it is our climate that keeps this part of Texas from becoming even more overpopulated than it is.

The sun is out! The sun is out!!