Spring Has Become Summer

The cattle seem peaceful and happy. Both Rocket and Lucky are growing like wildfire. Rocket is sold and I have a deposit on him, but he hasn't yet been picked up:

The apple trees produced hardly any flowers this spring, but they are alive. Alas, the Bush Cherry which had done so well the last few years is completely dead. I now need to remove the frame around it and cut the dead bush down:

I was out in the south field, searching for the horses' muzzles one afternoon, when I saw this patch of Ragged Robin growing around a fence post. I thought it was a photo-worthy scene:

The cherry tree has produced some baby cherries:

And baby plums on the usually productive tree. I saw none on the second plum tree which bloomed for the first time this year:

Baby pears. The pear tree seems to be doing well:


One Sunday morning I collected some yellow and purple Iris, mixed them with Spirea branches and put them in a vase. I took them to church, then back home to sit on my kitchen counter:

Remy had shucked his muzzle and was running away from me when I took this photo. He had no intention of holding still while I put it back on. It was otherwise a pleasant scene:

The south field, filled with Buttercups and Ragged Robin:

And as I searched the fence line for the muzzles the horses had jettisoned, I snapped a picture of these Fleabane and Ragged Robin flowers:

The fence line runs behind an old stone wall, which presented me with a miniature woodland scene:

And Cow Vetch seems to be growing everywhere right now. June is a pleasant month except that there is so much work to do:

Little Horses, Getting Wider

That's wider, not wilder. Perhaps I shouldn't joke about the little horses' growing potbellies since I am responsible for their health, but there seems little I can do about it - so humor seems the best response. They have grown ever wider on nothing but wild pasture, so now I'm reintroducing a tiny bit of daily grain to see if it has any effect, good or bad. If they were working ponies, they'd burn off those calories, but their only job is to be cute and friendly:

Remy seems less tubby than Blue, though it may simply be that his legs are longer:

And Remy does move more:

Blue is beginning to look like a miniature workhorse:

The cows are fat also, so it was a blessing that there were so few apples and pears this year. At the end, I did give them all a bit of fruit, but there wasn't much of it:

Remy, with his belly showing:

Blue, too lazy to stand up:

I was out in the field when Remy heard a neighbor's dog barking somewhere down the road and went into full alert. He reacts the same way when an Amish horse trots by, though he used to run alongside the fence to stay with the Amish buggy:


Most of each day is spent lazily munching grass, sleeping and living the good life:

I put the horses in the barn while I moved the cows back across the road. When I let the horses back out, they ran to the gate, upset that their bovine family was now across the gravel road and they couldn't join them:


Remy seemed to be the most upset, and stared through the gate as if he wanted to find a way to outsmart me:

Blue just stood beside the old silo base and looked forlorn. After a few minutes, however, they resumed their normal activities and seemed to be just fine:

A Big Project, A Crisis At Dusk

I've needed to trim the apple trees for a long time, but it began to look urgent as they increasingly rested on the electric wire which feeds my property. I began cutting big limbs which were dead, shading smaller trees or hanging on the electric wire. I had a lot of chainsaw trouble and had to sharpen it a few times.

  I also climbed up on a ladder on my porch and trimmed a number of big cedar limbs which had grown so heavy and low that I could no longer see out over the south field from my porch. This photo was taken when only  a part of the limbs were on the ground - there were many more:


 I was filling the tractor bucket with limbs and driving them across the gravel road and the north field, then dumping them on the brush pile in the woods. It involved more chainsaw trouble, but I got the yard cleaned up, the electric wire looking safer and the porch again receiving sunshine:

 I hauled eight bucket loads of limbs to the brush pile beyond the north field. Then I made sure the gates were closed in case I get to bring the cows into that field again this year:

 Once the limbs were off the lawn, I saw a few apples and pears, which I collected and then took out into the south field to give to the cattle and horses:

 It was almost dusk, so the following photos are not as clear as I'd wish, but the first thing I saw was that Rosella had a snout full of porcupine quills. These are big, easily frightened animals and I didn't know how I'd ever be able to remove the quills. I called the vet, who said he'd come out after dark if I could get someone to put her down with a tranquilizer gun:

 I knew a neighbor had a tranquilizer gun, so I gave him a call. He was trucking cattle at the time but was nearby and came right over. He shot her in the right shoulder and then left to finish his cattle delivery, promising to be back as soon as possible:

 Rosella took it calmly, but it took ten minutes for her to start to nod:

 At about 15 minutes, she went down. I put the pesky horses in the barn and brought out a bucket of tools to see how difficult the quills were going to be:

 The other cows were worried about Rosella and kept coming over to check on her. I was careful, lest they think I was hurting her and come after me - especially since it was rapidly getting dark. I managed to get all the quills out with pliers. When the neighbor returned, he checked and found one I'd missed. It took Rosella all night to fully recover, and even then it seemed to be painful for her to eat (but she continued to do so anyway). As of this writing, she appears to be someone painful but otherwise OK:

Autumn Fruit, Birds, Scenery, Flowers And Pastures

The pear tree seemed to have few blossoms this spring, but produced a bumper crop of handsome pears this autumn. I guess that I simply am no good at judging the crop by the amount of spring blossoms:

I ate a few, fed a few to the herd in spite of my previous determination not to, and allowed two Amish women to pick the rest of the fruit. The women left me a few branches of fruit for my own use and I will likely feed those pears to the herd when my sister visits:

The fantail pigeons seem to be doing unusually well:


This pair insisted on nesting on the ground in a place where opening the door would interfere. I put down a cake pan nest about a foot away, and moved their first egg into it. They were agreeable to the new arrangements and I soon saw cracked egg shells in the nest. I've only seen one tiny, fragile baby so far but have left them otherwise undisturbed so as not to interfere any more than I already have:

Another cake pan nest has two young'uns, nearly ready to venture out and learn to eat pelleted food. They sure make a disgusting mess of their nest, but these cake pans are easy to dump and clean:

One day I took this photo from an upstairs window, the view across the county road to the neighbors' barn and pasture. The corn field on the left belongs to a large farmer who buys up all available large fields, puts in drainage and grows crops in them, mostly corn and soy beans:

The Rose Mallows have been blooming abundantly, so much so that the stalks are falling over. A neighbor boy knocked on my door last evening to ask if he could photograph my beautiful flowers. They are amazing because they're so gigantic:

The miniature horses and cows are fat and comfortable, apparently living a life of ease:

Wild New England Asters began blooming early and abundantly, their purple color intensifying as time went on:

They attract butterflies, though it's difficult to get  good photo. This was a Monarch, the only photo it held still long enough for me to take. There was also a Painted Lady butterfly, similar to the Monarch but smaller, though it was nervous of me and I never got a picture:

The chickens are in need of another coop cleaning, though it may be that I can simply add pine shavings for now:

One last picture of the Rose Mallows in front of the house:

Around The Farm

Along a country road I observed this tableau: Jewelweed, Purple Loosestrife, Queen Anne's Lace and Sundrops, the day blooming version of Evening Primrose. Behind them is a corn field:

Although the dawns are getting later each day, I still often get to see these glorious skies:

I was surprised to find these calyx (sepals) reminders of June's flowering bonanza on the Mock Orange bush. I had not noticed them before. They are not as showy as the actual flowers, but lovely nonetheless:

The aptly named Butter-And-Eggs:

And my own little patch of Orpine, a wild Sedum. Those are windfall apples in the grass at their feet:

The baby fantail pigeon who had been so badly picked on is almost an adult now, and her injured head is nearly healed. I sometimes find it difficult to pick her out when I enter their room now:

The pear tree has resisted whatever disease struck the apple trees, and the fruit is getting bigger each day:

The only two trees which produced apples are the two alongside the road, away from all the others:

And though their fruit is smaller than usual and falling earlier, they certainly produced a lot of them. I fed them to the cattle a few times but then stopped because I want my cows (and horses) to lose weight:

The little bantam hens are down to only 3 or 4 eggs per day, but they are still pretty to look at and tasty to eat:

I discovered another baby fantail pigeon, this one strong and healthy (and not being picked on). I'm guessing it was ten days old when I discovered it and snapped this photo. They do look like they are related to dinosaurs:

The adult birds mob the water fountain every time I refresh it. I don't know if they are just curious or looking for fresher water (they rake shavings and dried poop into it during the day). They also probably would love a bath and I haven't provided one lately. It's time I did so: