Summer Idyl, But Certainly Not Idle

Yes indeed, it was a beautiful and busy summer. The apples began to redden quite early in August:

I had plenty of apples of various varieties. I really have no use for them now, but plan to feed them to the cattle when they arrive. I tried cutting them up for the chicks, but they weren't interested. This week, however, several neighbors (including the young Amish couple who harvested my cherries) have asked to pick all my excess fruit and I agreed:

And the pears were lovely. I plan to eat as many of these as possible:

The house, as seen through the apple trees:

The dogs on the ramp in their fenced yard. They loved to sit out there in the sun and watch me work. This photo was taken before PeeWee's arrival, which is why you don't see him:

I spent many long, hard days clearing the grass from beneath the electric fence:

This is what the final stretch looked like when I started. Weedkillers had killed the grass and weeds but they were still standing, shorting out the fence:

And this is what it looked like when I was done. I'd cleared just past that elm tree when this photo was taken:

The baby chicks were growing like weeds:

They were beginning to act like chickens and lose their cuteness:

I kept lights on for them at night and provided a lean-to where they could huddle if cold:

I often find birds trapped inside my barn. Apparently, they get in but can't figure out to get back out. This little sparrow was so panicked that he kept banging into windows. So I caught him and carried him outside:

A Busy Summer, Part 2

I supposed these barn swallows were nesting in my barn, but I'd never seen their nests. They sat on the wire and chatted with each other. When I first bought the farm, it looked to me as if no barn swallows lived here, but I've seen more and more each year until this year we had a bumper crop:

And the baby chicks are growing. In this picture they are about a week older than the photos in yesterday's post:

This will show them a little better:

They were growing wing feathers:

A little Chickie two-step:

I had three lamps in their coop for warmth and didn't take them out until the chicks had more feathers. The lean-to was there so they'd have a place to huddle under the lamps when it was cold or they were afraid. The ramp to the right would some day lead them to the outdoors:

I continued working on the fence line right through the summer. Each wire had strategically placed tighteners to control the tension in the lines:

You can see here the work I've done. The trees and brush had to be cleared on the outside of the fence. Then I had to brush hog a broad swath on both sides of the fence. I sprayed the weeds directly below the fence wires twice with weedkiller. Then I mowed as much as I could under the wires with a riding mower. Finally, I took a weed-whacker to the whole fence line. To say it has been a lot of work would be an understatement:

Here's another section of finished fence line:

This section hadn't been finished yet. I was clearing the brush with a chain saw and pruner. Then I'd hit it with a weed-whacker. This was a slow, dirty and exhausting job:

The weather on this day was perfect - until a rainstorm blew in. But I was happy for an excuse to call it a day:

I had to stand on the seat of the tractor and cut overhanging apple limbs. One limb swung around and hit me in the eye with an apple. I was sore for awhile but got no black eye. When I was done, it looked like it had been raining apples:

Two Days Of Brush Clearing

I had a professional install high tensile fence around my fields last autumn and he left a six foot swath around the outside to allow me to run a brush hog, keeping the swath free of tall weeds which would short out the electric fence. As you saw in a previous post, I had found the job far beyond my capabilities. So I called the installer back and he sent over two workers. They began where I'd left off:

They also found the job to be much more difficult and involved than they'd imagined, but they were seasoned veterans and had the right equipment:

They found big trees with lots of grapevines holding them up as well as Hawthorn trees full of flesh tearing spines. They also uncovered junk in the path which would have destroyed my brush hog if I'd attempted to run over it:

I mowed a swath inside the fence line, helped them with the tractor when needed and then began to mow around the outside where they'd cleared a path for me. But I certainly did stop to enjoy the bird songs, aromas and lovely wildflowers - in this case, Bedstraw and Wild Geranium:

The two of them used modern equipment and old fashioned manpower:

I worked hard too, though mostly on the tractor and not nearly as hard as they worked. The weather was hot but lovely and I was happy:

Another view of the wildflowers, this time Bedstraw and Cow Vetch:

And a little bit of horse play, just for fun:

They discovered and removed, often with the tractor's help, old barbed wire, wood, bed springs, barrels, cable, tar paper, lumber, tires, stones and huge slabs of concrete. And this was following three years of field clearing. But they kept at it:

We were approaching the end of the second day when I snapped this photo from atop the tractor. You can see that I'd already mowed a swath inside the fence and was awaiting their brush clearing to mow a swath outside the fence. That's my barn in the distance. We were almost finished:

We were all getting tired and I began to help them haul limbs and brush as they were cut:

When they'd finished, they went once more around the perimeter of the fields, making sure the wires were all stapled up and properly tightened. They promised to come back another time the next week to install an additional gate and to take down a dead Elm tree. But for the time being, we'd made enormous progress and we all needed a good rest:

Clearing Brush On A Sunny Day

I had a new, high tensile fence erected last fall but to my horror, I discovered that it couldn't be used when spring arrived. Many wires were down and the brush surrounding the perimeter was growing wildly toward the electric wires, with branches falling down and grasses growing upwards to short it out - IF I could ever turn it on. I bravely began brush hogging and chainsawing one day only to get the tractor stuck and require a lengthy rescue by my neighbor. A week later, my courage screwed up once again, I detached the brush hog, put the chainsaw and its accessories in the bucket and set out on the tractor to finish the job I'd begun the previous week:

The day was lovely and I was feeling very good about it all:

The main offender, at least at the point where I'd stopped, was a large, thorny Hawthorn tree which I'd formerly managed to uproot but then couldn't move anywhere. That's when I got mired in the mud, unable to go either forward or back. But this day was so lovely that I took a moment to experience it. Crickets chirped and birds sang. The air was filled with the aromas of forest, grasses and wildflowers. My farm house and barn were visible in the background and from somewhere I could hear children laughing as they played:

But my reverie ended when I tackled the evil Hawthorn. It had thorns on its thorns, and every one of them was aiming to hurt me:

This split limb demonstrated how the thorns grow from deep inside the wood:

I finally managed to cut up and toss the Hawthorn into the forest. I still couldn't go forward, however, because of three large Ash trees. So instead I began cutting overhanging branches which had slapped me in the face on my way in. You can see what a narrow space I had to work in:

I lowered the bucket and back-dragged the muddy ruts, hoping that would result in a more level driving lane after the ground dried out:

And then I took a moment to eat some wild strawberries:

I'd previously brush hogged around the inside perimeter and had a mowed lane in which to work whenever a branch fell to earth inside the fence line:

The day was successful although the job was far from done. As of this writing, the job is still not done. But I've been making progress:

Soil Sampling With The Dogs

A friend had convinced me to take soil samples from my two hay fields and have them tested at the Cooperative Extension Office. I set out in the north hay field with the five younger dogs to get a representative cupful of soil. For the pooches, it was just a romp in the outdoors:

Seamus had a grand time trotting through the brown grass:

And Madeline curiously investigated my shovel and containers:

This was a great opportunity for me to have a good look at the hay field following a long and difficult winter. For Fergus and Seamus, it was just fun to be outdoors. You can see athletic little Clover running in the background:

I got my soil sample and we all began heading back toward the house and barn:

Seamus posed for a beauty shot:

And then we moved on to the south hay field. The electric fences have not been turned on since they were put up and I am dreading the day I begin teaching the dogs to stay away from them. I don't want them to get zapped. It's possible that the Papillons will be able to walk right underneath the live wires, but Fergus and Seamus are almost sure to learn the hard way:

I put down the shovel and containers so we could walk around and investigate:

It really was a lovely sight:

I eventually collected my soil sample and we headed back toward the house;

  Two soil samples, and two happy dogs (well, five happy dogs, but only two in this photo):

I emptied the soil inside the house so they could dry out over night. The following week I took them in for pH testing. The results, however, showed them at just about the right level for growing grasses. So I won't be having lime spread on the fields. I just need to get some cattle to spread fertilizer the natural way: