Life with Pecan Trees

I'm not a big lover of pecans (proper pronunciation is PEE-cans not pe-CONS).  I'll eat a candied pecan or enjoy an occasional slice of pecan pie, but I'd rather have the "praline" part of the pecan praline, truth be told.  I do, however, love our pecan trees on the farm.  They provide so much shade...and so much DANGER!!!

For those of you not well versed in pecan tree knowledge (I'm a novice), if you learn nothing else, remember this:  Pecan trees are hell-bent on killing you and destroying your property...if you let them.  They drop limbs at any time.  Don't plant them close to structures.  Don't park under them.  Don't even stand under them for too long and certainly don't take a nap under one.  You might never wake up!  I kid...somewhat.  They are notorious for dropping limbs of all sizes, even on a clear day or night.

Nice try, Pecan Tree!

A couple of weeks ago, on a calm night, a "branch" decided it was time to fall.  I use the word "branch" loosely as this would qualify as a medium to large tree in any other scenario.  The base of it is over 19 inches in diameter.  It could take out a small village.

Makes you wonder what other parts are ready to drop from such a large tree...

It had no reason to drop from the tree other than just being mean or mischievous or...well...mostly rotten on the inside.  Rotten having double meaning here as doing damage to our barn would have been a rotten thing to do.  It barely clipped the roof, turning up an edge, but otherwise left the barn unscathed.

Just barely missed.

As it's been so hot, I have been waiting until the evenings to start cutting it up and carrying the pieces over to one of our ever-growing piles of debris.  I spent a couple of evenings, an hour or so each, cutting and dragging the pieces off.

This past Saturday, with most of the grass cut, I decided I'd get the rest of the small, leafy limbs cut off so I could work on the larger trunks of it.  I was carrying my last few pieces over to the pile when I felt a bug land on the back of my neck.  I brushed it away and walked back to the tree.

Normally bugs don't bother me.  I'm so used to grasshoppers, flies, mosquitoes, spiders, beetles and many other things landing on me as I cut grass or weeds or just walk through low-hanging branches and vines.  This was nothing new.  Or so I thought...  I felt it on the back of my neck again.

I brushed it away again.  This time I was a bit peeved that it hadn't taken the hint the first time.  I saw it land on the ground.  Good news...it was off of me.  More good news...it looked like just a grasshopper.  Then it didn't.  It looked like a piece of bark.  Weird.  Then it moved in the grass.  I took a closer look...

A mantis.  Why did it have to be a mantis?

EEEeeeeeewwwwwwww!

Bugs don't bother me.  Did I mention that?  But I DO NOT LIKE Praying Mantises.  I don't kill them, I just don't want them on me.  This one turned out to be a Florida or Grizzled Bark Mantis, which made it somewhat interesting as it was something I hadn't seen before, but did it have to land on me?  Especially on the back of my neck?

Those eyes say, "I will eat you alive!!!"

I coaxed it onto a piece of freshly cut wood and took it across the yard to show Neta, hence the pictures of it.  I turned it loose into the pile of debris figuring that it's going to be months before we burn it and there will be plenty of other bugs in there for it to eat before cold weather comes.

Ready to pounce.  This time he's going for my jugular!!!

These are just some of the hazards you face with pecan trees.

To demonstrate the multitude of bugs we regularly encounter, I'll round out this entry with a few other pictures that Neta has taken recently.

Neta found this guy on a sawhorse we were using to paint our porch swing.

A Walking Stick on one of our patio chairs that we use for picnic lunches.

We pulled up to check the mail and this guy beat us to it.