The Agony And The Ectasy

This is the northwest corner of my lawn, with two clumps of Lilacs and two apple trees in bloom. A cedar tree and the neighbors' barn show on the left. Views like this are part of the ecstasy of farm life in the north country:

The pink Prairie Rose flowering crab still had only buds, but it is glorious when in bloom:

The agony would be jobs such as cleaning the barn. The tractor is not good at scooping up the urine soaked, poopy bedding hay, so I have to fork it into the bucket by hand:

Then I have to haul it off to the manure/compost pile:

This year's compost pile is on the left. 2017's compost pile was where that brown spot now is. I've used it all up on plantings:


Last year's compost pile is already being used, and I scooped more of it up to use for planting when I was finished with cleaning the barn:

The red flowering crab buds opened fully and the Golden Delicious apple tree with which it is intertwined bloomed also:

A spectacular display, another one of the ecstasies:

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And then to my surprise, the newly planted Bleeding Hearts began to bloom:

Hardy, easy to grow, tolerant of shade and beautiful. It's no wonder that generations of gardeners have loved this plant:

I found a Lilac seedling growing by my back door when I moved here, so I dug it up and planted it at the end of the barn. Then I realized that would not be a good place and moved it again the next year. Now it's doing well and blooming nicely:

To my surprise, it is a different color, more blue than any of the other Lilacs on the property:

Scenes From Summertime

When she was here visiting, my sister took this photo of the farm from the county road:

 And she stayed after church because they serve a meal each Sunday:

 I showed her the Blue Sea Holly and Asiatic Lilies, both of which were putting on real show at that time:

 We found a few branches on a couple of trees which were producing apples:

 And the plums were growing rapidly:

 I showed her the two nearly fledged baby fantail pigeons:


And then she found several nests with babies which I had not even seen. This one was on the floor:

 And this one was up on a shelf:

 Later, I brought in a pan of water for the pigeons because they love to bathe and play in water. I brought in two pans but one had a leak. I'll buy another pan the next time I'm at the feed store:

 My sister also gave me a bug zapper paddle, a battery operated swatter which zaps them when they hit the wire mesh. It's fun, but I have to swing it fast to get the flies and then I can't see if it worked or not. I didn't have it turned on when I took this photo and only saw the fly on the mesh when I downloaded it. If only I'd noticed at the time, I could have pushed the button!

 After my sister left, I cleaned out the barn. With the horses spending each night there, the hay and manure builds up quickly:

 It took about six tractor buckets to haul it away to the manure/compost pile. The barn sure smelled better after I'd finished:

Snapshots From Around The Farm

It's been a cold but peaceful February, with the horses and cows calmly sharing the bale feeder:

Remy likes to dig in the snow, which leaves him with a white nose:

The cows enjoy the wasted hay, using it as bedding, and I have found a scene like this the perfect opportunity to spray fungicide on Gracie's two bald spots. I can often get them sprayed faster than she can stand up. If she's already standing when I go out, she knows what I'm up to and skedaddles:

Remy seems to feel some real affection for the cows, though I think they merely tolerate him:

Blue doesn't seem to feel the same affection for the bovines which Remy does. Notice Rocket and Scarlett behind him, with Scarlett giving me the stink-eye. She's very protective of her baby:

The compost pile behind this collection of animals grows each time I clean the barn. Of course it will shrink as it composts. If you look closely, you can see the small, dark pile which is all that's left of the previous year's compost:

The 27 fantail pigeons are lively and I expect they will reproduce this year:


They are friendly to me and unafraid:

Many of them are already paired up, though some apparently are not:

These three Easter Egger bantam hens add a bit of color to the mostly Barred Rock bantam flock:

It's a shame I can't let them out anymore, but the foxes kill them so fast that I've given up:

My Christmas Cactus has been blooming, on and off, since Thanksgiving. Apparently it is a very happy plant:

Around The Farm In Snowy January

We've already had plenty of cold, snow, ice and wind, though of course I know there will be much more to come. The white fantail pigeons are locked up safely inside the barn and seem to feel safe and even comfortable:

 They have a complex community of alliances, quarrels, romances and communications:

 The neighbors across the road brought in a relative's horse to keep their lone boy company. I see the two of them sometimes watching my minis from across the road, and of course there is much excitement from both sides of the road when an Amish horse trots by. Notice the full moon in this photo:

 And less you be deceived by the things I write that farm life is constantly picturesque and charming, I present Blue and Remy's frozen water bucket as I found it one morning. There was frozen manure atop the ice, which I thought was solid, right down to the bottom. I used a brick hammer to dislodge the frozen poop before bringing the bucket into the house to thaw and discovered that there was indeed water under the ice. When the hammer broke through the ice, cold water and dissolved manure sprayed up in my face and across the front of my jacket. Yet I still had to bring it indoors to thaw:

 The chickens don't seem to have a society as complex as the pigeons, yet they enjoy their little indoor community:

 But the constant here is the presence of winter - cold and windy. Sometimes it is beautiful, but no one ever says they'll be sorry to see spring arrive:

 I am located on flatland just north of the Adirondacks, and the howling winds sometimes sweep across it with devastating force. The winds can make even a relatively mild day seem brutally cold:

 And I have been finding daily fox tracks all around the barn and house. I know there is a feral cat living in my hay loft although he runs when I see him. But the foxes are my main concern as I won't be able to let the chickens or pigeons out in the spring. Every fresh snowfall reminds me of the traffic which occurred during the night. I have seen either dog or coyote tracks as well - and once I think I saw bobcat tracks. It's a dangerous world out there for chickens or pigeons, though I believe only the foxes are a danger during the daytime:

 The farm sign shudders in the wind but has held strong ever since I used epoxy to affix the bolts, and added a chain at the bottom to prevent excess movement in the wind:

 And after extra cold or wet nights, when I leave the cows inside, I have a lot of cleaning up to do the next morning. On the plus side, I have two goodly piles of compost for any gardening I want to do:

Notes From Around The Farm

Our nice weather held out longer than usual, so I continued to let the fantail pigeons out whenever the weather was warm enough:

They truly enjoyed it:

But there were two babies inside, and they don't handle the cold well, so when the temperatures became more winterlike, I closed their window for the season. I won't open it again until springtime:

The babies continued to grow feathers until I felt assured they'd make it through the cold:

The chickens also got to go outdoors when the weather was nice, though those times became less frequent and shorter:

I took down my lighted Thanksgiving cornucopia from the front door:

But there was no need to do anything with the Halloween pumpkins. This is all that was left of them by December:

I put up new Christmas decorations: Three candy canes, a blue and white snowflake, and a string of five, smaller snowflakes:

And speaking of roadside signs, my farm sign appeared in an ad for the sign maker and a man who saw it tracked me down and purchased my three oldest calves. As of this writing, however, he hasn't yet picked them up:

I looked out the back door one day and saw Seamus and Fergus harassing one of my hens. She must have fluttered over the fence, but why she would do that I'll never know. The dogs apparently didn't hurt her but she was so terrified that she lost a great many feathers. I got her back inside the coop quickly and she's been fine ever since:

I cleaned out the pigeon and chicken rooms, carrying out the shavings and poop to the tractor bucket:

Then I drove it around to the other side of the barn and dumped it on the manure pile. I also scooped up what was left of the previous year's manure pile and dumped it on top of this year's. A big pile of nicely composted manure and hay is a wonderful thing to have when doing any gardening or landscaping: