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:

Around The House And In The Barn

The first Daylily to bloom was the Chicago Arnie's Choice variety, planted last year, and they are spectacular:

 The five baby roses in the front of the house are still tiny but blooming so exuberantly that I began deadheading them, cutting off the spent flowers so the plant can use its resources to produce more leaves and roots. After the first such operation, the adjoining lawn looked as if there had been a rose multiple murder:

 The multicolored Yarrow has continued to make new flowers faster than I can cut them and put them in vases to bring to church each week:

 And we have a new crop of baby fantail pigeons. The little guy on the left seems to have the same sort of extra personality as the two who preceded him:

The bantam hens are producing fewer eggs, but I still get enough to give a dozen to a friend each week:

 One of the new baby Daylilies, called Always Afternoon, is blooming already in spite of being only about 8" tall and planted only this spring:

 The Rugosa roses are lovely and aromatic, just outside my door and clearly benefiting from the severe pruning I gave them this year:

 And what can I say about the Sunflowers? They are growing so fast that it amazes me - and, as you can see, they're already blooming:

The little plum tree is growing plums - not many, but that's good because it isn't built to bear much weight on its limbs:

 The apple trees have baby apples:

 The pear tree has a few pears, but not too many. Most of last year's abundant pears went to waste:

September Abundance

Japanese Knotweed may be one of the worst, most invasive weeds, but I have to admit that they are kind of pretty when in bloom. These plants were sticking out of the top of the Mock Orange bush, so I broke them off after taking the photo:

 I trudged out to prepare a bed in which to plant the three new rose bushes when they arrive in April. I dreaded the swinging of the pick and hefting of the shovel. Then I realized that the tractor could do the job in a few seconds. First, I scooped out a trench between the Tree Hydrangea and the two new Morden roses (the Rose Mallows are on the far left of the photo):

 I dumped that bucket full of soil behind the barn and then scooped a heaping bucket of old compost. I brought it around to the front of the house and dumped it in the trench I'd just hollowed out. The only hand work involved was a bit of leveling the compost. It was a happy occasion except that the Globe Thistle I'd worked so long and hard to grow had died in that very spot. I tried planting Globe Thistle seeds and 12 roots, but only one plant resulted - and it died, dead as a doornail, in midsummer. Next April I'll give more hardy roses a try:

 I cleaned out the barn floor by first using a snow shovel to move it to the center, where once again the tractor could do most of the lifting for me. Remy came in to "help" me. He needs to be in the middle of everything:

 When I had Remy's seal of approval (and when he was satisfied that there was nothing to eat and no mischief he could perpetrate) he joined the cows out on pasture:

 A quick walk around the yard revealed a New England Aster plant blooming beneath the apple trees:

 And right behind the New England Aster, on an old stump, was this Turkey Tail fungus:

 I had to stop mowing near the apple trees, which were dropping apples all over the grass. Some were big and red:

 Some were smaller but more numerous:

 And the pear tree was so heavy laden with fruit that the branches were touching the ground. The Postman was pulling onto my lawn each day and helping himself to pears:

 And the weight of the fruit was so heavy that more branches were snapping off. A family up the road will collect and use the fruit when they are fully ripe, but there is so much of it this year that it's hurting the tree:

 I seldom notice the farm sign anymore, at least in the summer when it's hidden in the leaves, but one side of it is holding up well. The other side is peeling. When it's no longer usable, I'll bring it inside the barn and affix it to the wall as a decoration:

Late Summer On The Farm

Grazing is good again because we've had rain. In fact, it's so good that the horses have to wear grazing muzzles to cut their consumption of rich grass and the fat cows are too well fed and lazy to come into the barn for grain:

 The pink Rose Mallows have been blooming wildly for several weeks, and now the red Rose Mallows are blooming. Alas, it appears that there are only two red flowering plants this year:

 They look good together, especially with the neighbors' red barn in the background:

 There weren't many apples this year but you might think otherwise if you had walk across all these windfalls:

 The pear tree produced so much fruit that branches started to break off and fall to the ground. Sadly, one of the larger plum branches snapped under the weight of the fruit also:

 I'd previously cut a lot of weed trees and low hanging branches from the flowering crab trees, so I added the pear branches to the pile and hauled them all off to the brush pile in the woods:

  My north field was already hayed, but the far south field had not even had a first cutting yet. They mowed it and began tedding it, surprised that it produced as much hay as it did:

  There was little clover, but grass hay is just fine for my animals, and it looked pretty good:

 After numerous rounds of tedding and one of windrowing, he brought his baler and hay wagon:

 He also brought his uncle, who caught the hay bales as the kicker tossed them up and into the wagon:

 I rode with him in the wagon for awhile and was able to get the view as he saw it:

 The kicker ejects the bale with great force, sending it up and into the wagon. In most instances, he didn't have to actually catch it, but merely guide it through the air to the place he wanted it stacked. That little field produced 183 bales of hay. I should be all set for the winter, including the big, round bales which I purchased earlier:

Wonderful, Glorious Summer

I was using the riding mower when I saw this tiny baby bird in the grass. I stopped to see what I could do:

The little thing was clearly a Cliff Swallow, too young to fly although it tried. I knew there were two Cliff Swallow nests nearby, in the eave of the milk room, and I wondered if I could put it back into one of them:

Alas, both nests were gone. I have no idea what could have happened to them or what, if any, predator could have destroyed the nests. That's when I saw a second Cliff Swallow baby:

  They were not happy to be picked up and it appeared that both parents were circling overhead, scolding me, so I put them safely out of the way of the mower but near the old site of the nests. The next day I only saw one baby and never did learn if one or both survived. Swallows are wonderful parents, though, so I figured the babies had a chance:

One side of the pear tree is gearing up for a bumper crop and the other side is producing also, though not as heavily:

The sun was just coming up and breaking through the clouds one morning, and I decided to take photos of the glorious skies:

Living amid such beauty is one of life's great joys:

People have marveled at the heavens from the beginning, and I continue to marvel now:

I find it easy to see how people find meaning and inspiration in the beauty of the sky. It certainly is majestic:

My Tree Hydrangea is beginning to bloom. Many of last year's dried flowers were still attached, so I clipped them off to make room for the new flowers:

Goldenrod has begun blooming. There are so many species that I don't even try to identify them although I do notice the different styles of flower heads as the season goes on:

Joe-Pye-Weed is mixed in along with the Goldenrod. What a summer this has been!