Farm Update

The farm is beautiful this time of year, and I sometimes think that my mother would have loved it here, with its old fashioned perennials and friendly animals. The Siberian Iris began blooming in June:

And the Lamium produced pink blossoms:

Though sparse in my fields, the Ragged Robin flowers turned some neighboring fields an amazing shade of purple:

A neighboring dairy farmer gave me some sunflower seedlings which have reseeding themselves outside his barn for years. I transplanted them and have been keeping them watered:

The Mock Orange bloomed in June:

And the old fashioned rose was suddenly covered with buds. This is the plant from which I started a cutting in front of the house. The new plant is only about 6" high now, but it survived that awful winter we just had:

And the white Peonies bloomed in June. This one patch of them had a yellow Day Lily in it:

And looking out my bathroom window, this is the view to the northeast:

And the view to the southeast:

The Blue-Eyed Grass began blooming everywhere, growing about 8" tall where it's not mowed, but happy to grow and bloom in the lawn also:

I let the chickens out every morning so they can scratch and peck. This morning, they clustered near the barn, where the sleeping cattle could be seen in the background:

The Mock Orange and the old fashioned rose, side by side:

Farm Update For May

I'll begin with a roadside scene which I found attractive. This was just up the road from my house, a typical springtime brook and fallen tree, everything blessedly free of snow:

The Bearded Iris outside my door have been struggling to emerge. I say "struggling," because the chickens routinely eat the tender tips off the leaves:

The Siberian Iris seems not to be as tasty as its relative:

The Lamium, which I transplanted from beneath the Lilac, is emerging from its winter nap and looking good:

The chickens, outdoors again after the fox scare, spend their days looking for tasty treats in the lawn. Also, notice the cattle in the background, collected around their hay bale feeder:

I scooped up several tractor bucket loads of composted manure and drove it over to the Iris bed next to the house, using it as mulch. I also buried a hen there which had drowned in the stock tank. Now she's fertilizing the Iris:

Everything looked healthy and happy when I was done. Of course the chickens could not leave it that way and immediately began scratching through the mulch, making a mess:

A neighbor reported having seen the fox again on the dirt road beside my property. Even worse, she'd also seen two den holes in the bank below my cow pasture. I drove down to see for myself. But I have continued to let the chickens out every day and will continue to do so unless the fox begins hunting them again. Hopefully, it will move away or get killed:

Another neighbor struck a deal with me where he'd spread half my composted cow manure on my field and half on his own. I loaded his manure spreader with my tractor and he hauled the spreader to my north field with his own tractor:

It was a marvelous thing to watch and I was much impressed. Whoever invented the manure spreader was a genius:

The Daffodils in the side yard were the first flowers of springtime:

And each morning, I let the chickens out for the day. I never tire of watching them strut and waddle their way down the plank, cautious yet anxious to be outdoors for the day:

More Photos From Around The Farm

Well, it's June 26 and more has happened around here to tell you about. One day I heard a peep from beneath the broody hens and lifted them off the nest, finding this little chick working its way out of the shell:

The first chick died. A little later, I found about seven dead chicks and one live chick on the floor of the coop. I rescued the live one, quickly making a brooder out of a plastic storage bin and a light bulb. When I collected the dead chicks, however, several of them twitched so I put them in the brooder also:

Several chicks died, several more hatched. In the end, I had five which lived. The hens, I'm sorry to say, attacked the chicks viciously and I had to snatch them quickly away:

When all was said and done, I had five Barred Rock Bantam chicks, winsome little creatures and totally charming:

Blue-Eyed Grass bloomed all over the property. It is not really a grass, but a member of the Iris family. This was the first wildflower identification which I remember my mother teaching us. Thereafter, we kept a scrapbook of wildflowers:

I had sprayed the weeds growing directly beneath the electric fence, but the time came when I had to hook up the bush hog and cut a six foot swath around the outside perimeter of the entire fence line. It took a whole day to do it, but otherwise went off without a problem:

I have a Woodchuck/Groundhog living beneath my barn and he's decided that I'm not a threat. I'm not sure that's a good thing, but he does have a cute face:

This old fashioned, ultra-hardy rose had been mowed over for many years. When I saw it trying to grow, I mowed around it and now it's a beauty. Last winter's temperatures of thirty below did not phase it one bit:

Cow Vetch is once again growing in the pastures. I don't know if the cows actually eat it, but I suspect they do because there's less of it this year:

I purchased and planted these Rugosa Roses. Hardy as they are, I don't think they're any match for the nameless beauty which used to be mowed over every year:

My fields still have a lot of junk left over from the previous owners and I'm still cleaning it up, little by little. That's why the tractor was parked there:

The Siberian Iris began blooming in the middle of the month and seems very happy. Perhaps the compost mulch I gave everything is helping: