Pictures From Around The Farm

The Rose Mallows and Tree Hydrangea which I planted last autumn began to bloom in late summer:

And the little bantams spend all day foraging in the lawn, but especially under the apple trees:

They seem to live an idyllic life:

I wondered why they never ate fallen apples until one day when I ran the mower over a lot of windfalls. The chickens had just been waiting for someone to cut them open for them. They loved apples once they could get their little beaks into them:

A second fantail pigeon has now explored the great outdoors. Mostly, however, they are all happy inside the barn where they are safe and comfortable:

My bush hog got badly damaged and the tractor company came to pick it up for repairs. That whooshing sound you hear is money flying out the window, a sound I've heard far too much of lately:

Once the bush hog was off the tractor, I set in to move all 29 bales from my fields to their storage spot near the barn. I wish I could store them under cover, but I know they'll be OK outdoors:

The pink Rose Mallows have put on an amazing show and are perhaps the biggest flowers I've ever seen:

The first 22 bales, with 7 more in the south field which I hadn't moved yet. You can see the cattle grazing in the background:

It's a peaceful scene, with only the prospect of another harsh winter to spoil it:

I had two pink Rose Mallows blooming and then a pure red one began blooming also. Combined with the Tree Hydrangea, they put on quite a show:

The "baby" chickens began using the open pigeon window to leave the barn but don't quite know how to get back in at night. This has caused me some evenings of chasing and catching chickens to put them safely to bed. I'm now trying a new technique, leaving the window closed but allowing the baby chickens access to the chicken coop so they can come and go with the adult birds. This also allows for more socialization opportunities. I'm looking forward to the time when I came just keep them all together as one flock:

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:

Clearing Brush On A Sunny Day

I had a new, high tensile fence erected last fall but to my horror, I discovered that it couldn't be used when spring arrived. Many wires were down and the brush surrounding the perimeter was growing wildly toward the electric wires, with branches falling down and grasses growing upwards to short it out - IF I could ever turn it on. I bravely began brush hogging and chainsawing one day only to get the tractor stuck and require a lengthy rescue by my neighbor. A week later, my courage screwed up once again, I detached the brush hog, put the chainsaw and its accessories in the bucket and set out on the tractor to finish the job I'd begun the previous week:

The day was lovely and I was feeling very good about it all:

The main offender, at least at the point where I'd stopped, was a large, thorny Hawthorn tree which I'd formerly managed to uproot but then couldn't move anywhere. That's when I got mired in the mud, unable to go either forward or back. But this day was so lovely that I took a moment to experience it. Crickets chirped and birds sang. The air was filled with the aromas of forest, grasses and wildflowers. My farm house and barn were visible in the background and from somewhere I could hear children laughing as they played:

But my reverie ended when I tackled the evil Hawthorn. It had thorns on its thorns, and every one of them was aiming to hurt me:

This split limb demonstrated how the thorns grow from deep inside the wood:

I finally managed to cut up and toss the Hawthorn into the forest. I still couldn't go forward, however, because of three large Ash trees. So instead I began cutting overhanging branches which had slapped me in the face on my way in. You can see what a narrow space I had to work in:

I lowered the bucket and back-dragged the muddy ruts, hoping that would result in a more level driving lane after the ground dried out:

And then I took a moment to eat some wild strawberries:

I'd previously brush hogged around the inside perimeter and had a mowed lane in which to work whenever a branch fell to earth inside the fence line:

The day was successful although the job was far from done. As of this writing, the job is still not done. But I've been making progress: