The peas just about bit the dust. I think a lot of things factored in -- light, water and distance from some leeks that have lived in the garden since last spring.

Peas don't like alliums -- like leeks or onions. They also probably need more light than what I'm allowing them right now in the garden bed under the pecan tree. Oh well, we'll try it again in the spring.

The beans are growing tall and strong, but still no sign of any beans. Keeping my fingers crossed there.

Oh the pecans!

My family spent about an hour on Sunday collecting pecans around our back and side yards. I felt like such a farmer out there, on my hands and knees picking up pecans and throwing them in the bag.

It was really cool!

We now have three large brown paper grocery bags full of unshelled pecans, and there are still more on the tree.

That's a lot of pecans that I definitely want to keep and freeze, but in their current state, they take up a bit too much space. That's why we're looking into some local places that will shell, sort and clean the pecans for us. We found a couple in Waco that are a little too far away, but it looks like there may be one close by in Leander. For $1.50 pound -- that's well worth it -- especially since pecans can run $10 pound in the stores. I'll keep you posted on what we find.

Coming soon

I have three topics I'm working on for blog entries later this week and next.

1 -- As soon as I can get a picture, I'm going to attempt to stop the practice of an old wives' tale that results in the butchering of trees all over town.

2 -- A KVUE viewer just sent in photos of monarch butterflies resting during their annual migration to Mexico. I found out about a really neat project to help these majestic creatures reach their winter getaway.

3 -- One of my favorite trees will soon have a permanent home outside. This weekend "Limey," my Mexican Lime tree which has been living in a container for two years, will be planted. He's a little too thorny to bring inside this winter with a toddler running around the house, but he's a citrus, and planting Limey takes a little more planning and consideration. So that's what I'm going to talk about.