A Farm Update

People here are thinking about autumn already and especially the coming winter. Even while the temperatures are in the eighties, it's only prudent to be planning for the cold which will be here too soon. I had the bale fork on the tractor, awaiting a load of hay bales when I took this photo:

This is Hare-Ear Mustard, an inconspicuous but common plant. When mowed over or eaten by cattle, it just miniaturizes and grows as a sort of north country bonsai:

The Tall Garden Phlox were spectacular this year but the butterflies and Clearwing Moths were nowhere to be seen:

One of the plum trees I planted when I first bought this place is producing its first fruits. I can hardly wait to give them a try:

The pigeons and chickens seem to live together in peace, both of them mainly serving as ornamentation for the farm. Their job is to look picturesque:

The chickens have a good life, going where they please and doing whatever enters their little heads:

This toad was living in the dog yard and hopped away when it saw the lawnmower coming. Of corse I stopped the mower and made sure it found a safe, shady hiding spot:

I continue to give the pigeons their birdbaths every now and then, and they continue to be overjoyed, playing in them and splashing like happy children:

And there are a couple more baby pigeons:

It seems there is only one pair producing offspring, but that's alright with me. If they were all breeding, I'd have too many pigeons:

And speaking of breeding, the hens have been laying their eggs outdoors where I can't find them. This hen got so broody that she stopped coming into the barn at night. When I finally located her, I threw out all the rotten eggs she was sitting on and herded her back to the barn at dusk every night:

There was also a cache of rotten eggs behind that rock at the base of the old fashioned rose. It was impossible to find until I weed-whacked the tall grass around the base of the rose: