Scenes From The Farm In The Summer

It's been an interesting summer so far and I've spent it veering from very busy to shamefully idle. The apple crop does not look good, though I did find one branch on one tree in the orchard which is growing fruit. Also, a wild seeded tree by the road has developing apples on it:

With only nine hens left, they are more cautious than they were with the rooster to lead them far afield. They still, however, love to cross the road and search for grain which the cattle have dropped:

These are not Queen Anne's Lace, but Elderberry blossoms. Our past winter was hard on them but they seem to have rebounded nicely:

The north field is filled with Bedstraw and Cow Vetch, both blooming abundantly:

We had a dry spell so bad that the Rugosa Rose buds dried up on the plant. They looked sad, bringing to mind Miss Havisham from "Great Expectations:"

My barn has steel siding but I hired a local teen to scrape and paint the wooden trim:

He scraped the western side of the barn, but before he could do the eastern side, we had to move both the cattle and horses across the road into the north field. The cattle knew the routine and went easily, but the horses balked and fought us. Luckily, the boy's father arrived just then and gave us a hand (which is why he's holding the lead ropes). The horses immediately forgot their angst and began running, playing and gobbling grass as soon as they arrived in the north field and we set them free:

My gravel driveway is once again filled with Pineapple Weed, a form of wild Chamomile. It smells wonderful when I drive across it with the riding mower:

The ditches along the town road are full of developing cattails. I remember reading that Purple Loosestrife was pushing our wild Cattails from their native habitat, but that doesn't seem to have happened, at least not here:

Burdock is a noxious plant and real pest, shorting out electric fences and covering animals with prickly burrs . I sprayed much of it with weed killer:

In the south field, Black-Eyed Susans, Bedstraw, Red Clover and Oxeye Daisy bloomed:

This hen has taken a liking to hanging out with the pigeons. She sometimes perches here, then hops through the window to join them. It does no harm and is easy for me to get her from there to the chicken coop: