It's FALL in Florida.

Yes, that's correct! It's Fall in our neighborhood, but not Autumn. The trees around us are green all year so we don't have the traditional Autumn when all the leaves turn bright colors and then fall, leaving the trees bare and dismal looking. Our trees have green leaves all year, but in the late winter some leaves turn yellow and fall from the trees, but leave a lot of new green leaves behind.

You can see the yellow in the trees. They soon fall leaving the nice green leaves. Another sign of spring is the blooming whatchamacallit as seen below. Helen can give you the real name.

Helen and I are still working on our yard and, of course, I have another fire going. We have removed a lot of dead and dying trees and there is still a long way to go. The new leaf blower is working very well. It forces air into the fire and makes it burn hot and fast. How hot? I don't know, but in the picture below you can see the brown glass bottle melted into the dirt and the remains of a spray paint can.

That's all I could find of the bottle. The rest must have melted into the ground and I'll find it later. In the past, using this system, I have recovered fused dirt the size of softballs. I sort of wish I was burning in pure sand to see if I could make some kind of glass.

I've had a few problems with equipment as the project continues. The pull starter cord on my chainsaw broke so I bought a new one. On the second pull with the new cord, the engine kicked back and the new cord broke. I think it's pre ignition because I've been using regular gas. I changed to high test this morning and it seems to be working fine now. I also have a gas powered weed eater. It's a Toro with a string weed eater as well as a blade for clearing small brush. The blade works fine on the briers and such. Saturday it was working very well for a while then stopped. It does that sometimes and all I have to do is restart and continue. Not this time. I pulled on the starter cord but there was no resistance. The starter doesn't engage. Another fix-it project.

Yesterday was Helen's birthday and we celebrated #39 again! We went to see the latest Liam Neeson movie, UNKNOWN. I don't usually choose that kind of a movie, but it was really good and I'd have to give it two thumbs up. After the movie we walked next door and had dinner at the Texas Roadhouse. With Helen as my date, it couldn't have been nicer. The meal, though, was not up to par. There seems to be a misunderstanding about what is rare, medium rare, medium, etc. We do not like our beef rare, but cooked to shoe leather is not good either. The waitress had the solution, order rare and then send it back for a little more cooking. I don't think so!

On the Dog's blog I mentioned a book, A Dog's Purpose, by W. Bruce Cameron. It was recommended to me by a friend, but I hesitate to recommend it to anyone else. I'm a wuss when it comes to dogs. I know how Old Yeller ends, so I have never seen the movie. This book is written from a dog's position, but I don't want to give too much away. Suffice it to say that as I was reading it, my three dogs were on my bed sitting beside me. There were times when tears flowed from my eyes as I couldn't help relate some of the story to my dogs. A warning....if you start it, you MUST finish it because in the end, it's not too bad.

That's it for today. I'm through burning and cutting wood. Tomorrow and Wednesday are AARP TaxAide sessions, so I get to sit at a desk all day.

Later.