Assorted Scenes From Around The Farm

It was a busy summer and a real learning experience for me. I spent a lot of it getting my little flock of Barred Rock bantams raised and teaching them to negotiate the outdoors. Yes, they had to be taught, first to go outside - and then to come back inside. But after awhile, they did learn to go in and out of their coop without assistance:


Alas, one of the lessons I learned was that a flock of chickens, however small and adorable, who hang out on the step in front of the barn door will poop so much as to make entering and exiting a distinct problem:

They learned to scratch, search for bugs and eat grass:

At first they wouldn't leave their coop so I put them out each day, one at a time. Then they went out by themselves but I had to catch and put them back, one at a time. But finally they learned:

I did a lot of fence work around both fields. The view across the hay fields toward the house and barn was one of the payoffs for getting outside and doing the work:

I had to haul pruned limbs and other brush back into the woods with the tractor:

And toward the end, I had to weed-whack the entire perimeter of both fields, a seemingly endless job. Here, you can see a section of trimmed fence line and then a section of untrimmed, just ahead of the tractor:

And this is what happens when weed-whacking thousands of feet of fence line:

But far out in the field working in a natural setting surely has its benefits:

I also had a lot of mowing and weed-whacking to do for the lawn area:

And once again, the payoff for doing it was a kind of rural, comfortable beauty - the kind which seems to put the mind and soul at rest:

And here is a very brief video of the chickens doing their thing:

Summer Idyl, But Certainly Not Idle

Yes indeed, it was a beautiful and busy summer. The apples began to redden quite early in August:

I had plenty of apples of various varieties. I really have no use for them now, but plan to feed them to the cattle when they arrive. I tried cutting them up for the chicks, but they weren't interested. This week, however, several neighbors (including the young Amish couple who harvested my cherries) have asked to pick all my excess fruit and I agreed:

And the pears were lovely. I plan to eat as many of these as possible:

The house, as seen through the apple trees:

The dogs on the ramp in their fenced yard. They loved to sit out there in the sun and watch me work. This photo was taken before PeeWee's arrival, which is why you don't see him:

I spent many long, hard days clearing the grass from beneath the electric fence:

This is what the final stretch looked like when I started. Weedkillers had killed the grass and weeds but they were still standing, shorting out the fence:

And this is what it looked like when I was done. I'd cleared just past that elm tree when this photo was taken:

The baby chicks were growing like weeds:

They were beginning to act like chickens and lose their cuteness:

I kept lights on for them at night and provided a lean-to where they could huddle if cold:

I often find birds trapped inside my barn. Apparently, they get in but can't figure out to get back out. This little sparrow was so panicked that he kept banging into windows. So I caught him and carried him outside:

A Busy Summer, Part 2

I supposed these barn swallows were nesting in my barn, but I'd never seen their nests. They sat on the wire and chatted with each other. When I first bought the farm, it looked to me as if no barn swallows lived here, but I've seen more and more each year until this year we had a bumper crop:

And the baby chicks are growing. In this picture they are about a week older than the photos in yesterday's post:

This will show them a little better:

They were growing wing feathers:

A little Chickie two-step:

I had three lamps in their coop for warmth and didn't take them out until the chicks had more feathers. The lean-to was there so they'd have a place to huddle under the lamps when it was cold or they were afraid. The ramp to the right would some day lead them to the outdoors:

I continued working on the fence line right through the summer. Each wire had strategically placed tighteners to control the tension in the lines:

You can see here the work I've done. The trees and brush had to be cleared on the outside of the fence. Then I had to brush hog a broad swath on both sides of the fence. I sprayed the weeds directly below the fence wires twice with weedkiller. Then I mowed as much as I could under the wires with a riding mower. Finally, I took a weed-whacker to the whole fence line. To say it has been a lot of work would be an understatement:

Here's another section of finished fence line:

This section hadn't been finished yet. I was clearing the brush with a chain saw and pruner. Then I'd hit it with a weed-whacker. This was a slow, dirty and exhausting job:

The weather on this day was perfect - until a rainstorm blew in. But I was happy for an excuse to call it a day:

I had to stand on the seat of the tractor and cut overhanging apple limbs. One limb swung around and hit me in the eye with an apple. I was sore for awhile but got no black eye. When I was done, it looked like it had been raining apples:

Hot Summer Days Around The Farm

My first full time summer on the farm has been filled with alternating periods of great work and great idleness. But always there has also been great beauty such as the yellow Asiatic Lilies just outside my door:

And soon after the yellow lilies had dropped their petals (notice them on the ground in this photo), my one and only orange lily burst into bloom:

I shut off the riding mower long enough to enjoy the summery treats of wild blackberries:

The Rugosa Roses bloomed off and on, pretty much all summer long:

And wild Butter-And-Eggs blossomed amidst the roses:

I bought a Tree Hydrangea, courtesy of a gift card from a friend, and planted it out in front of the house:

This photo isn't very good, but it represents a pleasant memory for me. I was on the riding mower and pulled out onto the dirt road to make a turn. I thought I saw a small pack of dogs trotting up the road toward me, but soon realized it was a doe and her two fawns. I held still and they kept coming, not veering off into the brush until they were very close to me:

A heavy crop of Choke Cherries at my fence line near the far end of the south hay field:

The view of my barn (the house is hidden behind the apple trees) from the south hay field - and just look at that sky!:

And a volunteer Snapdragon, no doubt a descendant of plants cultivated many years ago by the previous owners, took root and blossomed magnificently at the edge of my steps:

I spent a lot of time this summer brush hogging and clearing brush. But I dropped the brush hog in the yard when it came time to spray around the fence line:

That's the homemade sprayer parked out in the barn yard. I pretty much spent the summer working to get my expensive new fence to work. The cattle should be here in early autumn:

Two Days Of Brush Clearing

I had a professional install high tensile fence around my fields last autumn and he left a six foot swath around the outside to allow me to run a brush hog, keeping the swath free of tall weeds which would short out the electric fence. As you saw in a previous post, I had found the job far beyond my capabilities. So I called the installer back and he sent over two workers. They began where I'd left off:

They also found the job to be much more difficult and involved than they'd imagined, but they were seasoned veterans and had the right equipment:

They found big trees with lots of grapevines holding them up as well as Hawthorn trees full of flesh tearing spines. They also uncovered junk in the path which would have destroyed my brush hog if I'd attempted to run over it:

I mowed a swath inside the fence line, helped them with the tractor when needed and then began to mow around the outside where they'd cleared a path for me. But I certainly did stop to enjoy the bird songs, aromas and lovely wildflowers - in this case, Bedstraw and Wild Geranium:

The two of them used modern equipment and old fashioned manpower:

I worked hard too, though mostly on the tractor and not nearly as hard as they worked. The weather was hot but lovely and I was happy:

Another view of the wildflowers, this time Bedstraw and Cow Vetch:

And a little bit of horse play, just for fun:

They discovered and removed, often with the tractor's help, old barbed wire, wood, bed springs, barrels, cable, tar paper, lumber, tires, stones and huge slabs of concrete. And this was following three years of field clearing. But they kept at it:

We were approaching the end of the second day when I snapped this photo from atop the tractor. You can see that I'd already mowed a swath inside the fence and was awaiting their brush clearing to mow a swath outside the fence. That's my barn in the distance. We were almost finished:

We were all getting tired and I began to help them haul limbs and brush as they were cut:

When they'd finished, they went once more around the perimeter of the fields, making sure the wires were all stapled up and properly tightened. They promised to come back another time the next week to install an additional gate and to take down a dead Elm tree. But for the time being, we'd made enormous progress and we all needed a good rest: