A Season Of Great Beauty

The cherry tree is producing fruit nicely, but I have been here long enough to now realize the birds will probably eat them all long before they ripen:

The little climbing rose, called Darlow's Enigma, is living beneath the former farm sign framework but certainly hasn't grown much:

The other five new roses have more sun in their spot near the county road, and they seem to be doing better:

The Mock Orange bush never reached its full potential this year, but I'm not complaining - it was still beautiful:

The Ninebark bush truly outdid itself this year:

I was mowing the lawn on the north side of the house when I noticed this lovely scene and stopped to take a photo of it:

Alas, that's when I noticed that the Prairie Rose flowering crab tree has got some kind of disease again this year. It has almost no leaves left:

My crowded little Iris and Lily garden is so full of plants that it's a wonder any of them can live. One Oriental Poppy is blooming this year and the Blue Sea Holly is going gangbusters:

The old fashioned rose I started with a shoot from a bigger rose began to bloom nicely:

And the white Peonies were spectacular:

There was also one red single Peony which I planted two years ago:

I often take pictures of nice dawn skies, but this one may top them all. I was putting the little horses out in their corral just after 5:00 AM when I saw this sky:

The Beauty Of Summer

It seems bold of me to type the word "summer," for it has seemed that spring would never end and we'd move right into autumn and winter again. We had to heat our houses at night right through most of June, but at last I can safely say it is summer now. The baby fantail pigeon is doing extraordinarily well:

 And most of the adults are nesting or quibbling over prime mates or nesting sites:

 The bantam hens have reduced their egg laying to a just a few per day:

 And they seem comfortable and happy with their lives:

The offspring of the old fashioned rose began to flower:

 And the damn Canada Thistles and Bull Thistles crowded the fence line:

 I took a weed-whacker to them and things began to look better:

 With longer days, I began going out to do the chores at earlier times, with exquisite sights such as this dawn sky being my reward:

I planted Iris several years ago and this giant purple one began to flower. It is huge!

 Baby apricots (I think - it's hard to remember which tree is which), the first time I've had fruit since I planted the tree:

 And baby plums on the always productive tree. The nonproductive tree looks to be carrying on its nonproductive tradition:

 I planted a hardy Blue Moon Wisteria 3 or 4 years ago, but it never grew an inch. This year it appeared to have died, and even when it produced leaves, I held no hope for it. Then suddenly it began to send up vines as if it was finally going to thrive. Well, better late than never:

Winter On The Farm

Winter mornings are sometimes beautiful, the scenery inspiring:

And other times, winter mornings are disheartening, making me want to go right back to bed:

Inside the barn, though, the white fantail pigeons are preparing for spring:

They are pairing up and choosing nest sites. A few eggs have been laid:

 

  Their hunger and thirst seem to have increased:

And they look healthy in spite of the invading English Sparrows:

There are now only ten bantam hens left, and seven of them are getting pretty old (one hen died this winter):

But they are healthy and active - and they too are beginning to lay a few eggs:

I know they'd like to go outdoors when the weather turns nice, and I may let them do so - not for too long, though, because of our ravenous, bold foxes:

The horses and cows are getting a fresh hay bale every two or three days:

And learning to find piles of waste hay on which to sleep:

As for me, I am longing for spring more than ever and have succumbed to the temptation to order two fancy Peony plants, a variety called Coral Sunset. I will have a lot of planting to do this spring and I'm looking forward to it:

Winter On The Farm

The little hen grew all her feathers back but I had to wait for weather which was a bit more moderate before I could put her back outside. In the meantime, she began laying nice, pink eggs:

Finally the weather turned warm enough to put her back with her flock. Alas, one of her former Easter Egger hens did not recognize her anymore and attacked violently. I finally began putting the mean hen in the room with the pigeons each morning, then back in with the chickens in the evening. It took about eight days, but one morning I opened the door and both attacker and victim were side by side, friends once again. All has been well ever since:

The bale feeder has stayed on the east side of the barn to protect the herd from westerly winds. Occasionally, though, the winds come from another direction - but most of the time, they come from the west:

 Red morning sky in the southeast boded ill for the day's weather - but it sure was pretty:

At the bale feeder in the rosy glow of the morning sun:

 Icy dawn on the east side of the barn:

This has been a snowy, icy, frigid winter but the herd has persevered:

One day I saw a flock of turkeys at the far end of the north field. I had to use the zoom lens to photograph them:

But even that wasn't enough, so I extended the zoom lens even farther. These turkeys seemed bigger than most I see in the area:

We have had long stretches of time where everything was covered with dangerous, solid ice. This was the south field pasture:

Smooth, unnavigable ice adjacent to the cows and their bale feeder:

The driveway, between my house and barn. I could only get there by wearing crampons. Then a big snowstorm covered it all, making it even more hazardous in some places. This has been a most difficult winter so far:

Around The Farm In Chilly Weather

I go out to do the morning chores as soon as there is enough light to see what I'm doing. That often means seeing glorious dawns in the eastern sky:


And on some late afternoons, I see amazing sights in the sky. This full moon was moving across my north field:


The bantam hens seem happy with their cloistered lives:

One hen kept laying occasional eggs but she finally gave it up for the winter. I eat so few eggs, though, that I've still got some in the refrigerator. It's a good thing eggs keep so long:

The white fantail pigeons get all excited when I top off their water. Maybe they think I've put vodka in there:

Our weather has been a wild roller coaster ride, swinging between sudden thaws and sudden winter storms. The herd has handled it all with aplomb:

Remy and Jasmine, the two friendliest animals in the herd. When I walk out to say hello, these two are always glad to see me and they enjoy being stroked - Remy likes the top of his face petted and Jasmine likes me to rub her neck, under her chin:

The little horses and big cows seem happy and content. I never see any dominance displays over the hay supply:

Every morning with new snow, I find an abundance of wildlife tracks. Usually they are cottontail and fox tracks as in this photo, but I sometimes see other tracks which I think are bobcat, coyote and snowshoe hare:

My Amish neighbor is also the horses' farrier, and he usually arrives very early in the morning. On this morning, the sun had not yet risen above the barn roof, which is why the north field is brightly lit but the horse and buggy are still shadowed. The good news is that he said both horses' hooves are healing and looking good:

The sheep farmers up the road brought another load of stemmy hay. Their sheep eat the leaves but leave the stems, which my cows are happy to eat:

This time I was able to position the bale feeder over the top of the stemmy hay: