Living in the country

I almost forgot that winter is fast approaching and it is time to pick pecan again. You know those delicious pecans that are so expensive in malaysia, but are growing widely in my part of the country. All along the dirt roads in my area there are those big pecan trees which most time are loaded with the nuts (fruits). You can pick as much as you want along the roads or if you have neighbours whose grazing land are dotted with pecan tress (for cattle to rest under), you can go and pick them for free. Usually pecan pies are a must for Thanksgiving and I think I will make a couple of them next week.
Another thing I forgot to do is to pick the ripe pessimon which were staring at me at the intersection of the dirt road to my house. I was planning to pick them and, I don't know how it slipped off my mind. Perhaps I will drive down the road and see if they are still good to pick. I guess Miz King's ( the only black in my area) pears are still on their trees. I have not driven that way for a very long time. Last Fall, she gave me hundreds of them pears, that I had to can them in syrup, otherwise they would have gone bad.
I must be getting old, or time just flies that i could not keep up with the changing of the seasons. Things are done here according to the seasons. You start gardening at the end of winter, you do serious gardening in spring. Summer is the time when all your garden produce is ready to be harvested, tomatoes, green beans, potatoes, etc. Tomatoes if you have many of them, they have to be preserved. I usually canned whole tomatoes and make all kind of sauces as well as salsa. I canned green beans too and last year i canned my peaches as well as made them into jams and jellies. Summer too is the time to go and pick all those wild plums which are so good for making jellies. they just grow abundantly along the dirt roads or in someone's grazing field. You just go and pick them. This year i pick some and have turned them into juice and freeze the juice. Out of that juice I made jellies, that some people have tasted them. Summer is also the time to pick them big juicy balckberry from the back part of my property. Summer is a real busy time of the year.
Fall is just nice and relaxing depending if mother nature is kind. This fall so far has been dry and windy and above average temperature. This kind of weather means that they would be brush fires everywhere. We have some around our area, some hundreds of acre of grazing fields and wooded areas were burnt. We have to be very ready, because the fires can spread very fast with the wind is blowing at 30-40 mph. Living in the country we have to be sensitive to the weather and our surroundings. When we see smokes way out, we would call the fire department as well head that way with neccessary tools to help fight the fire. If it is near enough, my husband would take his tractor and i would drive the pick-up truck with a tank of water, just in case we need to use the water before the fire engines arrives. Everyone nearby would do the same. We are very neighbourly, eventhough our houses are miles apart and we do not know each other.
Macam duduk di kampong masa dulu-dulu. Gotong Royong.