The Red Poll Cattle

It's easy living for the red haired gals of Windswept Farm these days. The temperature has cooled and while there are still a lot of house flies, the biting flies seem to be disappearing:

 Rosella no longer keeps her calf by her side and he is free to roam anywhere he wants. She is ready to be artificially inseminated again and her calf, Winston, is ready to be sold - but first I need to get them into the barn when called. I'm working on luring them with grain:

 Jasmine and Winston were hanging out together near the gravel road:

 Gracie, Ruby and Scarlett were out near the neighbors' house:

Scarlett and Jasmine were by the stock tank. I also need to get Scarlett into the barn for grain so I can close the door on her and tattoo her calf's ears. Alas, her calf (Ruby) is getting big enough that I may need to get her locked in the barn instead. She's getting too big and too fast to catch when loose in the field:

 Jasmine and Rosella:

 Gracie, Violet, Winston. Winston is of course the smallest, but for this photo he was the closest:

 Scarlett and Ruby at mealtime - Jasmine in the background

Winston and Ruby were running and playing:

 Winston and Ruby again. They are playmates:

 Amy and Scarlett, with Ruby and Blue in the background:

September At Windswept Farm

Blue and Remy continue to spend their days in the outside corral and their nights in the barn. They now accept this as their life and are becoming much better behaved because they get so much handling. I lead them between the barn and corral twice each day and spray them with fly spray twice each day:

Remy is smart and playful, a mischievous troublemaker. I still have to keep an eye on him:

The Red Poll ladies are healthy and lead a life of leisure:

I began treating them to a bit of grain again so that I can get them into the barn when needed. Scarlett's calf needs her ears tattooed, Winston needs to be sold and Rosella needs to be artificially inseminated again. All these things require getting them into the barn:

The sunflowers and Daylilies are still going strong:

The plums ripened and I ate most of them, though there were only a few:

More flowers went to church. This vase contained yellow (wild) Goldenrod, Frans Hals Daylilies and various colors of sunflowers, including the "Teddy Bear" variety at the top:

Purple (wild) New England Aster, two varieties of roses and various colors of Yarrow:

Some years I have toads slipping into my mudroom when I open the door. This year I've had a tiny Spring Peeper. I carefully lift it and set it back outside in the garden:

The tallest sunflowers have reached about 14 feet tall and are branching to make a glorious display. I only recently learned that the flowers turn during the day to always face the sun. I've watched them facing east in the morning, then south midday and west later. It's really quite amazing:

But they also seemed about to fall over, so I hooked blue and yellow bungee cords together, then hooked them to the fence and around the stalks to keep them upright:

By contrast, the smallest sunflowers are only one to two feet tall. The one on the left is a Teddy Bear variety, but I have no idea what kind the others are:

Around The Farm In September

The days and nights are getting cooler. Autumn is in the air. I stopped by my neighbors' sheep farm to chat, and we were joined by two sheep, a ewe and a lamb, who have become pets and have no need to fear becoming mutton:

I only have five or six pears this year, but they look mighty good:

I walked far out into the field and then turned back and snapped this picture of the farmstead. From left to right: The hay supply, the house, the stock tank, the barn and my neighbor passing by on the gravel road with a wagonload of hay bales:

Autumn brings with it an abundance of crickets, but I haven't seen a closeup of a grasshopper in a long time. I was happy that this one held still long enough for me to get a photo:

The Rose Mallows began to bloom more so I went out to snap a picture of them:

Alas, I didn't see the hornet's nest which had been built just outside my front door (which I seldom use). I only got stung once but then began spraying it until they were all dead:

Wild Hyssop has sprung up in the pasture, just as it did last year:

I brought a sprig of Hyssop indoors for a closer look and got this photo of its tiny flowers:

And Boneset is blooming in the south field. It was once believed to heal broken bones because its leaves (on each side of the stem) were connected, kind of like a broken bone which had healed:

Pennsylvania Smartweed is also abundant in the south field and is just beginning to bloom:

 Lady's-Thumb Smartweed is much prettier than its relative, and it grows all around my back door:

 I knew it was autumn when the first New England Asters bloomed. This was all there was at the time, but more are now beginning to flower:

Lady's-Thumb Smartweed is much prettier than its relative, and it grows all around my back door:

Moore's Hill Lilac Farm

The Massena Garden Club was going on a field trip to the Moore's Hill Lilac Farm in Potsdam, New York and some people from church were going with them. I decided to go also, and drove out alone, getting there early. I found a beautifully restored old farm house:

And a couple of barns in wonderful shape:

There were rows of Lilacs out back:

When the Garden Club (and guests) arrived, we assembled in the barn for a talk on Lilacs and to see lots of full color photos:

And then we broke into two groups to tour the outside, one led by the husband and one led by the wife:

Alas, our spring was so delayed that even the Lilacs were not yet blooming. Even with winter coats, it was so cold and blustery that we were shivering:

They had approximately sixty varieties, enough to confuse a novice like me:

They categorized their Lilacs into early, mid-season and late bloomers. The late bloomers were mostly what are often called Korean Lilacs, with smaller leaves and shorter heights:

We found one bush which was almost in bloom. You can see how cold it was by the way people were bundled up:

A Korean Lilac:

At the end, we reassembled in the barn for more information and to have our questions answered:

They do not ship or sell over the internet, but you might enjoy perusing their website. You can find it here. I bought a Lilac myself before I left, a variety called Beauty Of Moscow. It is a tall, fast growing, robust, heavily perfumed and abundant bloomer with pink buds which open to white: I am looking forward to seeing it bloom:

Around The Farm

The fantail pigeons have been making nests and laying eggs, but so far nothing has come of it. I think it's still too cold:

The little hens have done pretty well at keeping their room reasonably clean, and they are both happy and healthy:

Fergus watched me weed the Day Lily bed, which runs alongside the dogs' fence:

And the Sunflower bed, which is adjacent to the Day Lily bed, was much easier to weed because nothing was planted there yet:

The Iris and Asiatic Lily bed was starting to grow, so I quickly weeded that also:

The farm sign was losing its paint, so I took it down and plan to hang it inside the barn:

The white and yellow Daffodils finally flowered:

They are beautiful. The pure yellow ones will bloom next, followed by the pure white ones:

Another of the six baby roses bloomed, this one with a very large bud. This is how it looked on day one:

On day two it put on quite a show:

On day three it was fully open and quite large, as you can tell by my hand in the picture. This variety is called Carefree Delight. I hope it lives up to its name:

And the Darlow's Enigma climbing rose put out one tiny, white flower. It is supposed to be a prolific and continuous bloomer, with vines which can sometimes cover a whole house. It may not do quite that well here in the far north, yet I still have high hopes for it: