Autumn Notebook

Both Ruby and Winston enjoyed hanging out near the horses:

And Rosella tried to touch noses with Remy, though the electric fence prevented it:

The very last flowers which went to church. It was communion Sunday and all three vases were placed on a small table with a white cloth underneath. The vase on the left held pink Morden Blush roses. The vase on the right held neon red Emily Carr roses. The vase in the center held yellow Heliopsis, red Yarrow, magenta Rugosa roses and Peony leaves which were turning red:

The trees bordering my north field began to show some gorgeous color:

And I purchased a lifting harness for Seamus. He hasn't needed it much yet, but I know he has periods of lameness when it will be helpful for both him and for me:

My sister brought a new toy for the cats, and both Sammy and Daisy like it very much:

Caspar, Clover and Bugsy like to sleep together on the big, green floor pillow:

Blue claims the morning hay and won't let Remy have any, although he softens once his belly is full:

Remy likes to sneak a bite of vegetation from beneath the bottom electric fence wire:

The Box Elder tree finally began dropping seeds, so I've had to spend much time picking them up twice each day. There is still too much green grass in the pasture for me to let the horses out:

Blue and Remy, my mischievous boys:

I finally got a buyer for Winston, so the next morning I was able to trap him inside the barn. He bawled for his mother and his herd, but was not as upset as previous calves. The buyer also wants to buy Ruby when she's old enough:

Beauty As We Move Into Autumn

The little garden where I'd removed the giant stump (well, most of it anyway) was slowing down and the Yarrow appeared to be mostly finished blooming for the year:

 There were a few white flowered plants, but I feared they'd drop their seed and increase in number, so I cut off any remaining white flower stalks, leaving the fancier colors, which I prefer:

 The fantail pigeons have finished nesting and all the babies but one appeared to be on their own, no longer requiring their parents to feed them:

 Alas, they began to look kind of shopworn and unhealthy, so I put medication into their water:

The little hens still look plenty healthy, so I haven't given them any medication:

 Their egg laying has dropped to about one small egg per day. Soon it will be no eggs at all:

 Many flowers are still blooming, so I brought three more vases of them to church. This one included Frans Hals Daylilies, Tree Hydrangea and some of the very smallest sunflowers:

 Green sepals from former Rose Mallows, purple (wild) New England Asters, pink Rose Mallows, Tree Hydrangea and two colors of roses (magenta and orange):

All sunflowers, various sizes and colors:

 Far less attractive was the barn floor, soaked with horse urine and manure. I was able to scoop up most of it with the tractor, but had to fork it into the bucket as I got toward the end:

 A giant puffball appeared beneath the bottom wire of the electric fence alongside the gravel road. It grew rapidly. Last time one grew there, the Amish woman from down the road asked for it (many people love to eat them) but so far this year she hasn't asked. I don't find them edible at all. They look like Styrofoam and I found them to be just about as tasty as Styrofoam:

We've had a lot of Monarch butterflies this year. They are flying everywhere but don't generally hold still long enough for me to get a photo. This one landed on the Frans Hals Daylilies, and held still just long enough for me to get a picture:

A Peaceful Time Of Year

Our temperatures have been gradually getting cooler and we've had more rain. The Cliff Swallows and Redwing Blackbirds have disappeared, the Starlings are flocking and the Goldfinches suddenly seem to be everywhere. Blue and Remy continue to spend their days in the corral. I dare not let them out until almost all the green grass is gone lest they get laminitis (founder) again:

But they seem content, and all the extra handling they've gotten has them behaving beautifully:

The cattle are fat and contented, though the flies are a persistent problem:

Little Ruby is growing rapidly but Scarlett, her mom, is still swollen with more milk than the little one can drink. That won't last, though, as Ruby grows and wants more milk:

I planted Armenian Basket Flower seeds this spring but none came up. I waited a long time for them, then bought some half price Red Hot Poker roots to replace them. The four Red Hot Pokers came up, although I worried that they weren't hardy enough to endure our winters. Then one day I said, "Wait a minute - those aren't Red Hot Poker leaves." I looked online and discovered they were Armenian Basket Flower (AKA Giant Yellow Knapweed) leaves after all. Four of them were growing and one now seems to be sending up a flower stalk:

Some neighbors came to collect all my windfall apples (that 55 gallon drum was almost full, as were a number of pails and coolers). They will feed them to their pigs:

Flowers are almost done for the year, but I managed to put together three vases full to bring to church on Sunday. This one included mini-sunflowers, pink Rose Mallows and Tree Hydrangeas:

All sunflowers, but various colors. Someone from church had a death in the family the previous night, so these flowers went to him after the service:

Peony leaves (turning autumn red), various colors of Yarrow, blue Delphinium and Rugosa roses:

These baby fantail pigeons were not siblings, but they had found each other, established a friendship and slept together in a nest. I found it heart warming:

The flock is now so large that I will have to sell some as soon as the babies are all on their own:

September At Windswept Farm

Blue and Remy continue to spend their days in the outside corral and their nights in the barn. They now accept this as their life and are becoming much better behaved because they get so much handling. I lead them between the barn and corral twice each day and spray them with fly spray twice each day:

Remy is smart and playful, a mischievous troublemaker. I still have to keep an eye on him:

The Red Poll ladies are healthy and lead a life of leisure:

I began treating them to a bit of grain again so that I can get them into the barn when needed. Scarlett's calf needs her ears tattooed, Winston needs to be sold and Rosella needs to be artificially inseminated again. All these things require getting them into the barn:

The sunflowers and Daylilies are still going strong:

The plums ripened and I ate most of them, though there were only a few:

More flowers went to church. This vase contained yellow (wild) Goldenrod, Frans Hals Daylilies and various colors of sunflowers, including the "Teddy Bear" variety at the top:

Purple (wild) New England Aster, two varieties of roses and various colors of Yarrow:

Some years I have toads slipping into my mudroom when I open the door. This year I've had a tiny Spring Peeper. I carefully lift it and set it back outside in the garden:

The tallest sunflowers have reached about 14 feet tall and are branching to make a glorious display. I only recently learned that the flowers turn during the day to always face the sun. I've watched them facing east in the morning, then south midday and west later. It's really quite amazing:

But they also seemed about to fall over, so I hooked blue and yellow bungee cords together, then hooked them to the fence and around the stalks to keep them upright:

By contrast, the smallest sunflowers are only one to two feet tall. The one on the left is a Teddy Bear variety, but I have no idea what kind the others are:

Cattle, Horses, Flowers

Autumn seems to be in the air some days, and it feels like summer on other days. The Red Polls enjoyed the idyllic weather this day, spreading farther apart than they do when the flies are more pesky:

And they often come to the stock tank as a group to get a drink of water:

The pasture has lots to eat in it, so the red haired ladies have much spare time for snoozing and lounging around:

Winston sniffed the air when I came near. Should I be insulted?

I find a scene like this each morning when I bring the horses out to their corral for the day:

Remy and Blue seem fairly happy in their corral and accustomed with their new routine:

I had to begin spraying both little horses with fly spray each morning before taking them outside. At first, that prevented the bot flies from laying eggs on their legs and sides, but after a few weeks, the bot fly eggs began to appear again. I now have to scrape them off carefully each time I bring them into the barn and also spray them with more fly repellent:

Blue likes to lie down and then bobs his head up and down. I was worried at first that something might be wrong, but apparently it's just something he likes to do:

And both horses love to roll on the ground:

The first Rose Mallow to bloom was this giant pink one. Notice the abundance of buds behind it - and that's only one of many shoots which will be blooming. I think it will be a good year for Rose Mallows:

I began snapping photos of the various colors and color combinations in the Yarrow patch but there were just too many of them. Instead, I put the photos together to make one big picture of SOME of the color varieties. I find these plants amazing: