Photos From Around The Farm

I had to find a bigger bin to use as a chick brooder:

The chicks were growing like weeds and feathering out nicely:

Outdoors, the Lamium was spreading and blooming profusely:

The iris stopped blooming, but the Asiatic Lilies began. Notice the hen scratching beneath the flowers:

The chickens love grass clippings, and run to the lawn mower as soon as I shut if off:

I have a very old fanning mill in my barn's hay loft. I took a photo of it and sent an email to the Power and Equipment Museum, offering to donate it. They declined the offer, saying they already had several fanning mills:

And one morning, I walked into the bathroom and found Georgette harassing a bat. I shooed her out of the room, closed the door, opened the window screens and endeavored to get the bat out the window. At first it tried hiding under the bathroom scales:

And then it tried hanging from my Mexican moon:

It landed on a bath mat and I eventually got it out the window. With bats dying of white nose syndrome, it's more important than ever to be spare them and help them:

The wild elderberries which live in my old silo base began to bloom:

Their blossoms are really quite attractive and soon will be berries, feeding the wild birds:

I took a photo of the baby fantail pigeons at one week of age and was shocked that only one had lived. But it was growing at an astounding rate, its eyes were open and I think we're going to have a new fantail pigeon to share the barn:

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: