June In The North Country

The fantail pigeons have not successfully raised any babies yet, but they are happy and healthy - and plentiful enough that I don't really need any more birds:

 They do, however, keep going through the motions of courtship, nest building, egg laying, etc:

 The lady on the right with the demure look on her face has a particularly nice nest, but nothing yet has come of it:

 The chickens are old enough that their egg laying is much reduced. In all honesty, that's a blessing for me. I simply can't use any more eggs than I'm getting:

Their eggs are pretty though, mostly green, pink or off-white:

 The lilacs began to fade so I took one last photo before those flowers became just a memory:

 The last and perhaps most spectacular bloomer was the Prairie Rose flowering crab. It was in full flower when everything else had quit for the year:

 And I couldn't resist one more close-up of this, its most floriferous year:

Our weather finally turned warm and sunny, so my neighbor came to begin cutting hay. He'd barely begun when he had to return to the gate to replace a broken shear pin. A few hours later, he went over a stump and had to replace a knife. This may look scenic and peaceful, but it's work which is not for the faint of heart:

 The field had already(!) grown to two feet high or more, and was so dense that cutting it was slow:

 But it was a beautiful day in a beautiful location. Life is good:

 And this hay looked like it will be spectacular:

Cleaning and Haying In June

The north field (in the background) was filled with tall grass, all ready to be hayed, so when I decided to clean up the cedar branches and old, rotten lumber from my wall repair, I drove to the wood pile along the outside of the fence. That way I didn't knock down any of the soon-to-be hay. It took two bucket loads to clear it all away:

I was wrong about there not being any baby fantail pigeons. I discovered this one high up on a shelf nest where I just hadn't noticed it before. It's a quiet, inactive bird and quite unlike some of the loud, hyperactive babies which have gotten themselves into trouble in the past. Maybe the parents are just keeping it so well fed it only lies there and burps all day:

Yellow Day Lilies began blooming amid a clump of Peonies. They appear every year without any assistance from me except to mow around the clump:

Out in the pasture, I saw these Common Fleabane flowers. There used to be more of them when I first moved here:

 

 We were predicted to have nearly a week of idyllic weather, and one day my neighbor began lining up his haying equipment on my lawn:

Meanwhile, I began brush hogging the pasture. The tall weeds were hiding the horses' heads when I tried to see if they still had their muzzles on. Furthermore, I was spending several hours each day searching for lost muzzles. It took about six hours over two days to get it all bush hogged:

The wildflowers were pretty, but Buttercups were taking over. They are inedible and increasing because they kept dropping seed. You can see here the uncut portion on the left, and a mowed section on the right. The bush hog cuts rather high, so I am hoping it didn't disturb many bird nests:

But let's face it - a wildflower meadow is a beautiful thing. I wanted a photo of it before I chopped off all those flower heads:

Meanwhile, my two neighbors (a nephew and his uncle) began haying, then tedding. Tedding is when they turn over the cut hay to help it dry in the sun. They had to ted it multiple times before they began baling:

And then they attached the baler, followed by a hay wagon. This year he had a brand new kicker, which tosses the finished bales up in the air and into the wagon, where the uncle caught it and stacked it neatly. I had to take a number of photos to get one which showed an airborne bale, but you can see it in this picture, just entering the front of the hay wagon. Click on the photo if you want to enlarge it:

The horses and cattle ignored all the activity and lounged and grazed peacefully in the south field pasture:

The fantail pigeons were enjoying life in the barn. They are sociable birds with each other and also, in their own way, with me. They know where their food, water and bedding comes from:

Making Hay While The Sun Shines

One day I discovered two tractors in my north field, one of them with a tedder for turning over the hay to dry in the sun:

My neighbor was cutting the field in sections with one tractor, leaving it in windrows to dry. Periodically he used the tractor with the tedder to help it dry:

He was busy mowing more of the field with the second tractor:

The hay looked good, almost all grass and clover. I was sure glad I'd sprayed and bush hogged the weeds in June and July:

The Red Clover was in bloom and seemed even more colorful than usual:

I took my share of the first full wagon of hay bales and he drove off with the rest. Last year he sold the hay but this year he has more cattle of his own to feed:

And to prove it really is autumn, the New England Asters began blooming amid the Goldenrod:

And our wild Sedum, called Orpine, continued to bloom but turned a darker pink, almost purple:

My Tree Hydrangea, which had been blooming for a long time, began to develop a reddish tint as its flower clusters prepared to end their display for the season:

"And what is this mess of a weed patch?," you may ask. It's one of the two patches where I planted 12 Globe Thistles this year. They looked so much like Dandelions that I decided to not weed them anymore and hope they'll sort themselves out next spring. I certainly don't want to be pulling up my newly planted Globe Thistles:

The red Rose Mallows were the second ones to bloom, and they added depth to the spectacular display in front of my house:

Pigeons, Hay Bales, Sunrises, Chickens And Fruit

The fantail pigeons only produced two babies this summer, and both of them died. But then this this lovely bird hatched one squab and fed it carefully:

 It fell to the floor on its second day, but since the parents were feeding and tending to it, I left it alone:

 It began to grow rapidly, sprouting feathers. I am hopeful that this little one will grow up and join the flock. There has been a second baby born since then and it too is doing well:

 A neighbor spent more than a week cutting, tedding (turning it over to dry in the sun) and baling the hay in my north field. I'd already filled the first floor with hay from another field, so my portion from this field went up into the hay loft. Electric bale elevators are marvelous inventions:

 And early in the morning, the parked haying equipment looked stunning in the rosy glow of sunrise:

 Wild blackberries ripened and I didn't even have to go looking for them. I stopped my riding mower and ate these right next to the lawn without even getting off the mower:

 I don't often see the fantail pigeons, the "baby" chicks and the adult hens all together, but some of each were all hanging out by the barn mini-door on this day:

 The eight remaining hens now live full time with the youngsters, though they diverge into two separate flocks the moment they get outdoors:

 I see a lot of glorious sunrises, but this one was the best so far. It was even more colorful that the photo and seemed almost to pulse above the foggy northeast field:

When I rang the bell to call in the cows that same morning, this was the morning sky over the southeastern field, which also was covered with fog. The cows and horses, by the way, refused to come in that morning and I had to wait until late afternoon to give them grain:

 I was taken aback when I saw these berries in my giant Lilac bush. They were on Virginia Creeper vines and perhaps the first time I've seen Virginia Creeper berries - or, more likely, the first time I truly took note of them:

 Some varmint, probably a rabbit, had been gnawing my windfall apples. I finally figured out who was eating them. It was my own hens, strolling beneath the apple trees, with a peck peck here and a peck peck there. I can still feed most of the apples to the cows, but some are so thoroughly demolished that I can't even do that. These were three good, still usable apples:

Early Summer On The Farm

This is an assortment of photos from around the farm and from the nearby roads. Only a few days after rescuing a Wood Turtle from the road, I encountered this massive Snapping Turtle in the middle of another road. I hesitated, but decided to help it across the road if I could do so safely. It was a nasty animal, trying hard to bite me, but I managed to get it across the road to safety:

Our long winter and spring drought severely hurt local hay crops, but farms with well maintained fields have been haying for several weeks now:

I've seen only one farm baling hay so far, but lots of folks are cutting their fields for silage:

My Rugosa Roses showed their first buds on May 31:

By June 1 they were blooming nicely, and I expect them to continue doing so through much of the summer:

The chickens collected at the barn door, hoping I'd open it for them so they could go in and look for grain. I didn't:

A closer look at the wildflowers in the hay fields revealed some old favorites, such as this Cow Vetch:

And Ragged Robin. Mine looked pale and scraggly, but I've seen other local fields which were almost a sea of purple:

Lesser Stitchwort, a Chickweed:

A Bedstraw, and I think it was Rough Bedstraw:

Common Fleabane and the ubiquitous Buttercups. There were lots of other flowers also, but they'll have to wait for another day:

A short video of the three calves frolicking as the cattle came to the barn for some grain. At 25 and 26 seconds, you get all four calves (including Rosella) lined up in order of age, from oldest to youngest, left to right - Rosella, Annie, Gladys, Loretta: