Garden Wonders

The rain held last evening, so Nora was able to snap some additional photos of the various flowers in bloom around the house.  She's been wonderful about documenting all of my flower beds throughout the growing season, which aids in identifying gaps, determining which plants need to be relocated, where I need early bloomers, etc.  My goal is to have gardens that are in bloom from early spring through the first frost in October.

Some lilies that survived the Edith and Archie massacre

Artistic shot of split rail peaking through the Japanese Willow and Heliopsis helianthoides in the circle garden

Astilbe and dianthus.  The dianthus was planted last evening.

Stella D'oro day lilies in front yard island

Obviously I have a yellow obsession.  Mix of heliopsis and potentilla.  The tall plants in the back left are garden phlox and will produce beautiful purple blossoms in another couple of weeks.  I also planted some purple lupine and baptista in behind the potentilla (still small this year) that will bloom in late spring.  The front of the bed is lined with recently planted purple and yellow pansies and petunias.  They will fill out in another week or so.

A sole peony bloom.  I just planted the tubers last year, so the plants are still small.  Next year should bring a spectacular array of beautiful peonies - whites, pinks and reds -- planted in multiple garden beds.

New this year and I love it!  It's called trailing bellflower (also called campanula blue waterfall).  It's a low growing flower that spreads like ground phlox, but blooms in early summer.  Gorgeous.  I planted it along the edge of the butterfly garden.

A "Typical" Morning at the Farm

If there is such a thing.

This morning began at 4:45 a.m. when our oldest, and loudest, dog, Ruby, woke me up by her excited "let's greet the morning" noises.  I cracked open my eyes, and said "really?" and that set off a chorus of tail thwapping by Magnolia and Wilma who were also in the room, at the foot of the bed, waiting for me to rise.

After the morning ritual of letting dogs out and in and turning on the coffee, I donned my boots and hoodie (used not for warmth on this balmy morning, but rather as a layer between me and the mosquitoes) and headed out to the main coop.  The ladies begin chatting as soon as they see me outside their windows, and I get plenty of "buk-buks" as they each exit the coop in single-file.  I check water and food, and throw them some seed and it's off to the sheep.

The first morning visit to the sheep involves a stop in the garden area to fill a 5 gallon bucket of water, which I then carry out to the barn.  The 3 lambs are always standing at the doors when I open them in the morning.  We exchange good morning's and then I give them some hay.  This generally sets Tallulah off, who begins to baa ceaselessly until they get their morning ration of sweet feed.  I then empty out the usually filthy water trough and replace with clean water.  They pay no attention as I leave, closing them in the run, while they busily eat their feed.

Then it's back to the house with a stop at the garden and berry area to see how things are progressing (and take notes for Nora's daily to-do list :) ).  Lots of strawberries ready to be picked, so I made a mental note to do so after coffee.

Nora is usually up by the time I get back to the house, so it's safe to bring Made It and Daisy2 out to their area (Ruby likes to scream when she sees them - a sound Nora doesn't appreciate waking up to).  Once they are safely closed in their area, water and feed checked, I walk back to the house for my morning cup of coffee.  I like to take a quick walk through the flower gardens in the back to see what new flowers have bloomed.

Jackmanii clematis in bloom on the arbor

Light pink Astilbe near the gazebo

Shasta daisies in the circle garden

After coffee, feeding the dogs, letting Louie out of his room to run around the house, and morning chatter with Nora, I headed out to pick the strawberries and do a little spot weeding.  Pulled in quite a pile this morning, which I cleaned and prepped for jam making later this evening or tomorrow (I have several bags already in the freezer so more than enough for my first summer batch of jam).

Then it was time for my last chore of the morning before heading out to work, so back out to the sheep barn.   I open the run gate and top off the hay before leaving my little cuties for the day.

Tallulah greeting me at the gate

Yeah!! We're free!!

Then back to the house, with one last look at the sheepies and my very overgrown pasture.  I ordered a custom-made scythe from a small company in Maine to cut the grass, and hopefully it will arrive soon.  In the meantime, our neighbor down the road said he would brush hog it, but the wet weather has been a deterrent.

Off to work I go.

His name is now PITA

The rabbit, formerly known as Archie, has been a naughty and busy little man. In a previous post(don't fence me in) I talked about a new garden fence. Jim worked diligently to craft it all out of cedar. He finished it the other day and it looks great. Apparently PITA ( stands for Pain in the A$@!) thought it best to lend a hand in the process by serving as the Q A specialist. For those of you unfamiliar with the role, their job, put simply, is to try and break things.

The other morning Lynn and I received the results of his test.

Almost a perfect square. Kudos.
This enterprising young man made the decision to expand his QA skills to some of the plants. The purpose of this test was to measure the heartiness of young edamame plants post-decimation as pictured here:

The results of this exercise will take weeks. We are hoping for a positive outcome. While we appreciate his initiative, we are looking at re-assignment tasks for PITA that may involve a relocation.

History in the making

It is amazing to see the change people can spur. I am stunned, relieved, validated, and overjoyed. For the first time in my 47 years, I feel like a full American citizen. Thank you United States for remembering who(the country) we are at the core, and for recognizing me and others like me.

Supreme Court strikes down Defense of Marriage Act

Beat the heat

Hen style. I feel for the ladies, and the sheep too. It is 82 degrees and humid and only 11:00 a.m. it's only going to get worse. ugh. I wish I could bring them all inside. Not sure Lynn would appreciate it. Anyhow, here is how the hens handle it. Daisy2 and MadeIt are nestled is the tall grass and dirt bed and the other hens are under the coop. I may go out later and spray them with the hose. At first they are not very appreciative, but seem to feel relief.

The many colors of early summer

I find it difficult to capture the grounds in a meaningful way so little snippets here and there will have to do. Hopefully you will get some of the flavor of Lynn's work on the gardens. And speaking of Lynn, once in a blue moon she actually stands still long enough to take a picture. The second one is hers. Kudos shark lady. (some sharks die if they don't keep moving)

Ya just can't make this stuff up

So as I posted earlier, I saved a baby robin from certain doom via our dogs, Ruby specifically. While I was sitting on the screened in porch on the side of our house I happen to see one of the rabbits right near the road. I thought to myself, "are you kidding me?" "Now I have to watch out for you too?" I watch as he hopped closer to the road within 2 feet from the bike lane. WHOOSH, a car goes by and scares him back into the yard. Thank goodness he is afraid of them and darted back in. So I go back into the house more relaxed. But I do decide to check on him a little bit later. I walk over to one of our front windows to see him. I hear a little tussle at the front door. I thought "It must be Lynn putting the key in the lock". Nope. Guess who it was?

Can you believe it? Neither could I. I slowly grabbed my camera and got this shot. She is literally on our front doorstep. Then she flew onto the rail of our steps. This girl like rails. Lynn pulls in the driveway and I caution her to walk slowly because the rabbit is still close enough to the road(don't want her to spook him) and the baby is on the rail. Her face lit up as I was telling her the story. As we are standing there determining our next course of action, none other than Hosta appears out from the lilies, also way too close to the road. For real people? Holy crap! sticky situations popping up all over. One quick move and someone could get hurt. So we decided that Lynn would get on the other side of the road fence and scare the rabbit back into the yard. Success. Off he went well into the yard at this point. What's that in the sky? A hawk? What's next? A tiger gonna come at us? Man. We waited until the hawk left the area before we encouraged Hosta to move. Now what to do about baby?
Lynn guided her towards the other side of the yard, opposite the dog area. She hopped onto the split rail where her mom joined her. I was able to witness mom feeding her. Very cool. I was too far to get a pic. I had to keep moving back in order for mom to approach. But I got this shot at least.

And now I need a drink, so I'm gonna bounce.

To the rescue

Last night Lynn and I were finishing up dinner in our gazebo when we heard quite the commotion and saw a baby robin in Ruby's mouth. What a lovely way to end a meal. Thanks Rubes. Lynn retrieved the poor little one but there was no life left. We knew there had to be a nest close by, which meant it was in the dog's area. Why the robin's chose a tree in there is beyond me but it was what it was. We had a rough idea of location but could not see anything.
Jump to this morning, and we hear robins chirping loudly and the dogs excited. Finally we were able to see the nest with a chubby baby inside it. The parents were nearby and all was well. We felt better knowing the location in case there was an incident.
And, of course there was. This afternoon I was out cleaning the gazebo and what do I hear? The screaming of robins. I turned towards the dog enclosure and saw them swooping around the dogs, all of whom were out. Lots of running around, swooping, and chirping. I don't even want to know the language being used, I know it was strong. Of course I ran into the dog area and screamed at them and forced them inside. I looked at the nest. No baby. My stomach sank. That meant she was around somewhere, and hopefully alive. I was being harassed by the parents so I decided to go in the house for 5 minutes to give them a chance to chill. I came back out and listened for the little chirp. Low and behold she was on the bridge rail. I knew I had to relocate and soon. So I gathered up dried lawn clippings and placed them in an egg carton in an effort (albeit a lame one) to make a nest. I placed the nest in a safe location. Now its time to get the baby. Ugh, I hate this part. I am so heavy handed that I fear holding anything small and delicate. My apprehension did not matter. What mattered was safety of this little one so I reached out to her. To my surprise she flew but only a few feet, still in the dog area. I reached again, same thing. I kept at it until she crawled through the fence. All the while I am being screamed at (again I am sure they were using choice bird expletives) by the parents. I was sure they were around before I began to get her. It's important they not lose sight so they can continue to nurture the little one. Although she was outside the fence, I was not comfortable with the distance so I kept bugging her until she approached a large plant off of our screened-in porch, and inside the plant she went. The parents were satisfied and so was I. A day in life here.
Here's a pic of the little one before I prodded her.

Ahh, to be that relaxed

Good ole Mags who we call, among other things,  PTolie (pronounced pa-toe-lee) loves to nap. And she rarely ever sleeps in a typical dog position. Here is an example of her dead sleep. She does this in the middle of the field some days and I keep waiting for the knock on the door about my dead dog in the yard. You can also see her belly pockets. (well, that's what I call them) I am obsessed with them. She has retained a puppy belly despite being 4 years old. Most dogs get a decent amount of hair on their stomachs so it covers up their rolls and skin.

Wascal Wabbits

Over the last day or two we have had quite a few rabbits visiting. We have Hosta, the little bunny who I posted a pic of yesterday. He is named that cause he has taken residence/protection in our giant hosta plants. He is about 5 inches long, cute little guy. Although very shy.
There is a single adult hanging around an apple tree on and off. Then we have what appear to be an adult couple. I will call them Archie and Edith, why not.

This morning I was able to get pics of them in the circle garden.

Archie was very good about posing for me.

They did not seem at all spooked by me or my camera going off. There were basically just chillin. I was digging it.

And then a chill came over me. I started to hear Lynn's voice in my head screaming "NOT MY LILLIES" I shuttered. And immediately started to shoo them away like a good soldier. So here they are bolting off.

I love this next shot. Looks like a yard ornament shadow.

Daisy2 and MadeIt's night-night routine

So as you already know from prior posts, the humans on this property are enormous saps. And that these two hens are brought out every morning and back in every night. Here's a quick peek into their nightly routine.

Just before sundown their human taxi arrives to bring them to their destination.

After gently being placed in their brooder box/bedroom, they start to eat, drink and have a conversation. I am mystified as to what they talk about. These girls are inseparable all day long. I mean at each other's side for hours with the exception of laying, which they do one at a time. What could they possibly have left to say to one another? Regardless, every night they chat. So I decided to tape them cause I get a kick out of their winding down routine. I used video to capture it but you can't really see anything. click here to listen. MadeIt has the deeper voice and does most of the talking.

Just some pics from this a.m.



hopefully Lynn will get off my back now. lol BTW, the second photo I thought looked like a duck hiding in the hosta. Turns out it's a wild mushroom.

Under water

Metaphorically and physically, for what feels like the past several weeks.  Not only has my paying job been busier, which means less time at home to knock out to-dos (other than the “has to happen” animal-related chores), but the weather has been wholly uncooperative.  It feels like we have had 2 weeks of rain and cold with maybe 2 days of partial sun during that stretch and for several days we had biblical rains.  The backyard looked like a rice paddy, portions of the vegetable garden were quite literally underwater, the chickens were up to their feathered bellies in mud once again, and the only things growing successfully in the deluge seems to be the weeds and grass!  And of course it is too wet to do anything about either. Ugh.

So, I just close my eyes as I walk from the car into the house in the evening, hoping that if I don’t look at the 2’ tall grass and prolific weeds they will somehow cease to exist.  Alas, when I step outside in the morning, they are still there – mocking me.

Nora has been doing what she can around the uncooperative weather.  She was able to weed the larger of the strawberry beds yesterday (we weeded and mulched the smaller bed over the weekend), and this morning the soil was dry enough, finally, to hill the potatoes (those that had already grown several inches prior to being submerged; who knows if the others will make it, or just rot in the ground).  She’s probably out there now attempting to weed portions of the vegetable garden. 

Here’s hoping for a 2 day stretch without rain!

Da Dilma

Our youngest dog Wilma has no idea of her size and how it relates to anything in this world, including Lynn. Wilma outweighs her at this stage so it is really funny when she insists on being a lap dog. Here is a pic from this morning. Poor Lynn sat on the floor to stretch her back, instead she got treated to a Mastiff face bath.

Some pics from the weekend

rain collecting on blueberry nets

Action shot

stalker



One potato, two potato, three potato, four

It has been raining over the last couple of days, so not much has been done outside, which is why I have been posting more. Today I decided to talk about one of my favorite vegetables of all time, the potato. This year we planted three 20' rows of potatoes: 2 of white storage (Kennebec) and 1 red (Desiree). These guys require a lot of dirt. Throughout their development you have to "hill" them. This involves dumping enough dirt on them to cover up about 2/3 of the exposed plant, thereby creating a hill. You do this about three times during the growing period. In an effort to be more efficient this year, we dug a trench and planted the seed potatoes (a potato with at least two eyes) four inches into the ground from the bottom. We plan on using the dug up dirt from the sides of the trench to hill them.

So, in about a week and a half from placing that potato 4 inches in the ground you begin to see cracks in the earth like this one below. As an aside, the French word for potato is pomme de terre, meaning apple of the earth. Considered yourself cultured now. ;)

Soon you will have a row of plants.

After about 2 months the plants will flower which is your cue to start harvesting if you like new potatoes. Otherwise, leave them in the ground to keep growing. I love digging for them. It's like a treasure hunt, you just never know how many are going to be there. We remove all of the remaining plants towards the end of September.  Once we dig them up, we leave the dirt on until we use them. All  are stored in crates in the basement for use in the winter.

The potato is one of the most versatile vegetables out there. Think about it, vodka, French fries, potato salad, potato skins, hash browns, etc. All things I love. A staple in this house for sure.

Mags and the girls

Here is a quick video of Magnolia hanging with the girls for the second time. Mags is one of those rare beings that truly just loves all things living and wants to lick them all. Not everyone is appreciative of her affections.

We don't let her in the pen much because we don't want to stress out the girls. Soon they will be friends I am sure. It's hard to resist her.

Don't fence me in

Seriously. How much fence does a place need for Christ sakes?  And yet another fence is going up. For real. Poor Jim. He has been putting up fence for years now. I estimate that we have had over 1000 ft put up in the last three years, and that does not include the fencing that surrounds the property. We have fences to keep life in, and to keep life out. We have decorative fencing. And sometimes the fences are expanded out, and then pulled back in. We should have called this place Cedar Post Farm.

This particular one is surrounding the main vegetable garden in an effort to keep away unwanted guests. It is comprised of 45 large posts, and 90 smaller ones that will cross-sect. Once that is done, Jim will staple on the same plastic netted fencing we use for the dog and chicken area. He set all the posts in yesterday.

This area is 50ft x 50ft. We were off on our measurements in an earlier post.

Lynn claims this is the last fence to go in, then added this year to the end of her sentence. I fully expect to wake up one morning in a pen.

Good Morning from Tallulah