The Red Polls In Summer

Little Winston is looking great, and I've had more people stopping in to ask about buying him. Even after I say he can't be a herd sire because he'll be sterile, they still seem to want him - but it will have to wait now until he's five or six months old so I can get him into the barn and away from his mom:

Scarlett is due to calve soon and makes frequent trips in for mineral supplements and water:

And sometimes the whole herd lounges near the compost/manure pile:

They are a happy, healthy bunch except perhaps for the obesity of some of them and the pesky flies in the summertime:

But life is good, and the scenery is beautiful:

Scarlett and Rosella, mother and daughter, one pregnant and one making milk for her calf, need lots of water and often come to the stock tank together:

Winston often runs to greet me when I'm in the field, coming surprisingly close and regarding me with fascination:

They drink lots of water in this hot weather:

I began letting the stock tank overflow in order to clean out the algae and keep the water fresh. It worked well except that I developed a big patch of gooey mud. I had to stop the practice, or at least do it less often:

The cattle have created many dust baths around the pasture, this one right next to the horses' corral. This a place where they kick the sandy soil up onto their bellies in an attempt to chase away the biting flies:

Rosella on her way to the stock tank to refill her milk making supply of water yet again:

Winston wanted to sleep but the cows wanted to move on:

What's Happening Around The Farm

The little bantam hens are only laying three or four eggs a day, but even that is more than I can eat. I've begun bringing eggs in for a friend at church each Sunday, which so far seems to be a perfect solution:

I still don't let the chickens outdoors, though I hope I can do so in the fall. Though our fox population seems down, I now have seedlings and new plants all over - and I remember when I first got the chickens and the little hens raided my garden, first eating all the tomatoes, then eating all the plants:

The two baby fantail pigeons are amazingly healthy and smart. They jump down from their nest to join the flock and explore, then jump back up and peep for their parents to come feed them:

Their nest is on a ledge, just above the food barrel and someone else's nest on the floor. The babies frequently jump down and get friendly with the bird on the floor nest. I expected a defensive reaction from the adult, but so far everything has been friendly. The babies hang out with the nesting pair on the floor, then socialize with the flock, then hop back up on their ledge and call to be fed:

When I first moved here, there was a woven wire fence stretching halfway across the middle of the south field. It was dilapidated and of no good use, so I began removing a couple of sections each summer. This year there were only two left, but I hadn't had the energy to dismantle them. Then one day I was cleaning out the barn and saw there were only two sections of fence, so I drove the tractor over there:


Instead of the slow and careful dismantling I did previously, this time I used the tractor bucket to pull the fence and posts up out of the ground:

I got them all firmly held in place on the bucket and drove them out the gate and around by my work area:


I carefully removed the fence from the posts, then folded up the wire into two sections, put them in empty feed bags and dropped them in the trash bins. Now that awful, useless and potentially hazardous section of fence is gone forever:

The little garden I made where I'd removed most a giant stump was looking hopeless, but it improved a lot as the Yarrow and Chives began to grow. There appears to be some Globe Thistle coming along, and the Heliopsis, Delphinium and Veronica I bought at end-of-season sales are helping make my little garden look like it might work:

The stretch of Sunflowers is growing so fast that any photo I take is obsolete in a couple of days. Many of the plants along the fence are already over four feet tall. There are much smaller seedlings in the front of the strip, but they get the most sun and are therefore still likely to do well as the summer progresses:

And then one day, the first Daylily bloomed. I couldn't remember the variety name, so I looked up my last year's order. It is called "Chicago Arnie's Choice" and it appears as if there will be a lot of them. By the way, I've been calling them Day Lilies (two words), but it appears as if the correct name is Daylily (one word). I will try to remember to use the right word in the future:

What is this mess, you may ask. It's the northeast corner of the barn, where the traffic cones I used to use when the cattle crossed the road are nestled in giant Burdock and Ragweed. It's a good thing I don't have allergies:

Pets At Home

Caspar isn't little anymore, but he still acts like a silly kitten. One of his favorite games is getting under one of the fleecy dog beds and then moving it around like a furry ghost:

And speaking of kitten playfulness, I heard a crash and rushed to the kitchen to find this. None of them even felt guilty:

Bugsy decided that the big green floor pillow wasn't quite soft enough, so he draped himself across Clover's body:

Seamus, Fergus and Jack waited at the gate to get back inside the house. The birds were singing and the perfume of the roses filled the air. It is idyllic here much of the time:

 A similar scene as the above photo, but seen from the opposite side of the fence:


 A kitchen corner collection: Bugsy, Clover, Seamus Fergus and Daphne:

Seamus and Fergus, just back from the groomer:

The two recently coifed boys showed off their new haircuts as Jack and Daphne watched from the ramp:

No, this wasn't a feline confrontation, just Daisy passing peacefully past Sammy:

Friends: Daphne, Clover, Fergus and Bugsy:

Sammy, Daisy and Jack:

Another ramp scene, this one showing one of the reasons they like it there - the shade which the roses provide:

Birds And Flowers

The two baby fantail pigeons, born in the nest on the crowded ledge, are doing fine and growing rapidly:

Another baby was born in a cake pan nest on a bottom shelf, but kept jumping out. Its parents keep feeding it anyway and I keep putting it back in the cake pan:

The little bantam hens continue to ignore their xylophone, but then I guess when I ordered baby chicks, I forgot to specify the musical variety :

Nevertheless, they seem both happy and healthy:

I've been bringing vases of flowers to church, but one Sunday all I seemed to have were yellow Asiatic Lilies. I put a bunch of them in a red vase and took them with me:

And I began buying leftover perennials on sale at local stores. Some of my purchases included these two Delphiniums and two Veronicas (often called Speedwells):

And these two Echinaceas. All of these plants are supposed to be hardy down to -40 F:

In the place where my Armenian Basket Flower seeds never came up, I put some half priced Red Hot Poker roots. Now I don't know for sure if these are them or weeds. I'm guessing they are the Red Hot Pokers, but they will probably not survive our cold winters. Maybe I can dig them up and replant them in the spring if that's what they turn out to be:

The sunflowers are growing so fast that this picture is already out of date. I can almost see the increase in height each day when I walk past this row:

A closeup of the Veronica flowers:

And a closeup of the two colors of Delphinium:

And then another one of the six baby roses began to bloom, and it was extraordinary. This is the Emily Carr variety, a continuous bloomer and Zone 3 hardy:

After The Rescue - Part 2

The dogs and I had hiked for miles when our car had gotten mired in a mud hole (see previous posts). After it had been pulled out, we stopped at the CCC reservoir for some cooling recreation. We walked to the tip of the peninsula and the dogs went right into the water:

Seamus is old and partially lame (like me), but he played like a goofy puppy when he was in the water:

Look at the happy smile on Seamus' face!:

Fergus usually goes into the water with the other dogs, but this time he stayed up on the highest part of the peninsula. We found him there when we began walking back:

We traveled along the ridge of the peninsula, with water on both sides of us:

And of course we took our time and enjoyed the beauty:

The dogs made a few attempts at going into the water again, but it's not so easy here as it was at the end of the peninsula. So we just kept walking:

We stopped a moment to appreciate the scenery. Seamus seemed particularly awed by it all:

And then we continued on our return walk back to the car:

The shallow parts of the reservoir were filled with white waterlilies in bloom:

And then we saw our little red car up ahead. It was totally covered with mud and a few things didn't work right after being immersed in water, but we climbed into it and headed for home, lunch and a long nap: