A Peaceful Time Of Year

Our temperatures have been gradually getting cooler and we've had more rain. The Cliff Swallows and Redwing Blackbirds have disappeared, the Starlings are flocking and the Goldfinches suddenly seem to be everywhere. Blue and Remy continue to spend their days in the corral. I dare not let them out until almost all the green grass is gone lest they get laminitis (founder) again:

But they seem content, and all the extra handling they've gotten has them behaving beautifully:

The cattle are fat and contented, though the flies are a persistent problem:

Little Ruby is growing rapidly but Scarlett, her mom, is still swollen with more milk than the little one can drink. That won't last, though, as Ruby grows and wants more milk:

I planted Armenian Basket Flower seeds this spring but none came up. I waited a long time for them, then bought some half price Red Hot Poker roots to replace them. The four Red Hot Pokers came up, although I worried that they weren't hardy enough to endure our winters. Then one day I said, "Wait a minute - those aren't Red Hot Poker leaves." I looked online and discovered they were Armenian Basket Flower (AKA Giant Yellow Knapweed) leaves after all. Four of them were growing and one now seems to be sending up a flower stalk:

Some neighbors came to collect all my windfall apples (that 55 gallon drum was almost full, as were a number of pails and coolers). They will feed them to their pigs:

Flowers are almost done for the year, but I managed to put together three vases full to bring to church on Sunday. This one included mini-sunflowers, pink Rose Mallows and Tree Hydrangeas:

All sunflowers, but various colors. Someone from church had a death in the family the previous night, so these flowers went to him after the service:

Peony leaves (turning autumn red), various colors of Yarrow, blue Delphinium and Rugosa roses:

These baby fantail pigeons were not siblings, but they had found each other, established a friendship and slept together in a nest. I found it heart warming:

The flock is now so large that I will have to sell some as soon as the babies are all on their own:

It's Beginning To Look A Lot Like Autumn

Winston is reaching the age when I will need to trap him in the barn and sell him. It will be a tricky operation, and upsetting for him, for his mother, and for me:

 Blue and Remy have another 6 to 8 weeks in their corral before I can let them loose in the south field. They will be happy to regain their freedom, and I'll be happy that my life will be easier:

 My north field produced a second crop of hay. It was cut, then tedded, then baled. The neighbor did the baling, using the kicker to fling the finished product up into the wagon which was towed behind the baler. His uncle, on another tractor, raked the cut and dried hay into windrows so the baler could pick it up and turn it into bales:

 I love the aroma of hay, both in the field and in the barn. It is also a scenic operation:

I took this photo to show how the baler collects the rows of hay and processes them into bales:

 But there are occasional breakdowns and problems. This stop was to refill the bin with four big rolls of baling twine:

 Flowers were still blooming, so I brought two more vases of them to church. This one contained flowers of Tree Hydrangea, Rugosa rose and Sevillana rose:

 Sunflowers and Daylilies:

I didn't think there would be many apples this year, but like other years, I was wrong. When they began to fall, I was shocked to see there were so many:

 They weren't big, pretty, supermarket apples - but they were good:

 Over on the other side of the house, a Yellow Delicious dropped small apples, and some animal, probably a Chipmunk or Red Squirrel, has been using these old steps as a dinner table:

 The plums began to ripen, but I have learned to wait for them to fall before I eat them. That's how I know they're really ripe and sweet:

What The Thaw Revealed

After an early, snowy and frigid beginning to winter, we had a surprise thaw, so I went out to see what the snow melt had revealed. This is my Blue Moon Wisteria. It's not much taller than when I planted it, but it's sturdier and has already survived one harsh winter, so I have high hopes for more growth this summer:

 The pear tree produced so much fruit that branches began snapping off and falling to the ground. Even after letting the neighbors take all the pears they wanted, there were still plenty of them on the ground:

 And I could tell that the cottontails had been eating them. I see their tracks each morning when there's snow on the ground and sometimes I see them scurry away when I turn on the back porch light at night:

 There were windfall apples too:

 I thought the Coppertina Ninebark bushes were unchanged by winter's cold - until, that is, I got a closer look. The leaves were dry and dead, despite retaining much of their coppery color:

 The Iris and Asiatic Lilies (and all their little weed friends) were asleep for the winter:

 And, on the other side of the house from the main apple grove, the Golden Delicious tree had dropped fruit. I could see that the rabbits had been eating them also:

 The Variegated Weigela and Magic Carpet Spirea looked dead, but they are hardy enough for me not to worry about them:

 The peonies had lain down for a long winter's nap:

 But the Tree Hydrangea will keep its dried flowers all winter long:

 The Mandarin Honeysuckle is in its first winter here. The last one I planted didn't make it through its first winter, but this one grew much better - and they are reportedly Zone 3 hardy:

 The Red Hydrangea and hardy Magnolia were dormant, and I could only hope they will survive this winter. This is the Magnolia's third winter here but, as you can see, it hasn't grown very tall in three years:

 My biggest surprise was the Morden roses. When they told me they were super hardy, I guess they weren't kidding. They still looked like they'd bloom again if we got some warmer weather:

 The Rose Mallows were done for the year. I'll cut them down to the ground in the spring:

 But the Rose Mallows had a surprise for me - pods filled with seeds. I tried planting some last year without success, but I saved these seeds and plan to try again in the spring:

 Another surprise, an Eastern White Cedar seedling growing in an ancient tree stump beneath the big clump of Lilacs. Alas, I won't be able to let it grow there because of the Lilacs:

 And speaking of Lilacs, they too had seed pods, not to mention green buds, all ready to burst open in the spring. Our surprise thaw was short lived. It's now fully winter again:

An Autumn Walk Around The Farm - Part 1

Most of the pretty autumn leaves had fallen, but one chilly, windy day I walked outside to look around and decided that there was still an abundance of autumn beauty everywhere I looked. I began in front of my house, looking past my mailbox and across the county road to the corn field and pasture belonging to neighbors:

My Bridalveil Spirea was turning bright red:

The pink Rose Mallows had two blossoms which had begun to unfurl until a nighttime freeze hit them. They won't open any farther now:

The super hardy Morden Sunrise rose, however, was still blooming. It was beautiful but alas, this was the best photo I could manage to get:

A witch, ghost and devil now hang above my front door, moving constantly with the wind:

The peony leaves were turning red:

In the apple grove, windfall fruit was thick and difficult to walk across:

Some fruit still clung to the branches, and it was exceptionally lovely:

I walked out into the south field to check on the horses' muzzles. To my surprise, they were fine and I didn't need to put them back on - so I just took some photos:

I looked back toward the gravel road, a wonderful autumn scene:


The Canada Thistle managed to spring back twice after I cut it down, some of it still blooming and producing seed for more &#$%# thistles next year:

The view from the south field back toward the barn and house. I still had more walking to do, though, and will post Part 2 tomorrow: