The first chick died. A little later, I found about seven dead chicks and one live chick on the floor of the coop. I rescued the live one, quickly making a brooder out of a plastic storage bin and a light bulb. When I collected the dead chicks, however, several of them twitched so I put them in the brooder also:
Several chicks died, several more hatched. In the end, I had five which lived. The hens, I'm sorry to say, attacked the chicks viciously and I had to snatch them quickly away:
When all was said and done, I had five Barred Rock Bantam chicks, winsome little creatures and totally charming:
Blue-Eyed Grass bloomed all over the property. It is not really a grass, but a member of the Iris family. This was the first wildflower identification which I remember my mother teaching us. Thereafter, we kept a scrapbook of wildflowers:
I had sprayed the weeds growing directly beneath the electric fence, but the time came when I had to hook up the bush hog and cut a six foot swath around the outside perimeter of the entire fence line. It took a whole day to do it, but otherwise went off without a problem:
I have a Woodchuck/Groundhog living beneath my barn and he's decided that I'm not a threat. I'm not sure that's a good thing, but he does have a cute face:
This old fashioned, ultra-hardy rose had been mowed over for many years. When I saw it trying to grow, I mowed around it and now it's a beauty. Last winter's temperatures of thirty below did not phase it one bit:
Cow Vetch is once again growing in the pastures. I don't know if the cows actually eat it, but I suspect they do because there's less of it this year:
I purchased and planted these Rugosa Roses. Hardy as they are, I don't think they're any match for the nameless beauty which used to be mowed over every year:
My fields still have a lot of junk left over from the previous owners and I'm still cleaning it up, little by little. That's why the tractor was parked there:
The Siberian Iris began blooming in the middle of the month and seems very happy. Perhaps the compost mulch I gave everything is helping:
