ALABAMA

It occurred to me that I haven't described what it's like to be in coastal Alabama in the winter, so here we go!

When we arrive before Thanksgiving, most trees still have their leaves.  Actually, most trees here keep their leaves all winter - magnolia, live oak, holly, and the bushes and plants used in landscaping around homes.  The bare-limbed trees are the pecan, sycamore, hickory, maple, etc.  There are many kinds of pine trees because the soil is so sandy.   Their needles can be anywhere from 6" to 18" long!  The cypress trees lose their lacy needles also.

The crops are just being harvested, so we see "bales" of cotton along the roadside edges of the fields waiting for the semi tractor to come winch them on board for the trip to the cotton gin (wherever that is!).

Then we drove past a different field and discovered the "bales" are different this year.   We don't know what kind of equipment compacts the cotton into these round bales.   Could a hay baler do it?

Here is a close-up to show how tight the cotton is inside the bale.   This is very true for the semi-size bales since the only thing on them is the cover to keep the rain off them.   They don't sit in the fields very long as bales.

That's it for now because the internet is so slow.    Happy New Year!