A Busy Summer, Part 2

I supposed these barn swallows were nesting in my barn, but I'd never seen their nests. They sat on the wire and chatted with each other. When I first bought the farm, it looked to me as if no barn swallows lived here, but I've seen more and more each year until this year we had a bumper crop:

And the baby chicks are growing. In this picture they are about a week older than the photos in yesterday's post:

This will show them a little better:

They were growing wing feathers:

A little Chickie two-step:

I had three lamps in their coop for warmth and didn't take them out until the chicks had more feathers. The lean-to was there so they'd have a place to huddle under the lamps when it was cold or they were afraid. The ramp to the right would some day lead them to the outdoors:

I continued working on the fence line right through the summer. Each wire had strategically placed tighteners to control the tension in the lines:

You can see here the work I've done. The trees and brush had to be cleared on the outside of the fence. Then I had to brush hog a broad swath on both sides of the fence. I sprayed the weeds directly below the fence wires twice with weedkiller. Then I mowed as much as I could under the wires with a riding mower. Finally, I took a weed-whacker to the whole fence line. To say it has been a lot of work would be an understatement:

Here's another section of finished fence line:

This section hadn't been finished yet. I was clearing the brush with a chain saw and pruner. Then I'd hit it with a weed-whacker. This was a slow, dirty and exhausting job:

The weather on this day was perfect - until a rainstorm blew in. But I was happy for an excuse to call it a day:

I had to stand on the seat of the tractor and cut overhanging apple limbs. One limb swung around and hit me in the eye with an apple. I was sore for awhile but got no black eye. When I was done, it looked like it had been raining apples: