Monthly Archives: June 2023

Attention Michigan Drivers: A Reminder to Put Down Your Phone!

Reflections

Dear Friends and Family who drive in Michigan,

On June 30th a new law goes into effect in Michigan. The law makes holding or using a cell phone while driving a primary offense — meaning an officer could pull someone over and ticket them for it. The legislation defines holding a cell phone or electronic device as physically supporting it with “any part of the hands, arms or shoulders.” See this article for more details.

I do believe it is a best practice not to use the phone while driving as one can easily become distracted by using the phone and an accident can happen in a split second, but if that in itself is not reason enough to wait on that call or text until you are done driving then hopefully the threat of getting pulled over and fined will motivate you.

Please drive safe! ❤

Ruby Tales

Dogs, Reflections

It’s been just over a year since I wrote this post introducing you all to Ruby, and what a wonderful year it has been.

Our fourth shelter dog, Ruby has been everything we could have hoped for. She is loving and lovable, she is obedient, loyal and fun. She loves to play with Ranger; she loves to herd chickens; she loves to play ball with my husband while he is trying to do chores; and she loves to cuddle up on my lap in my recliner. She is a good watch dog with a big bark and will let us know if she sees something that she thinks is not right. She does take her time getting to know new people but the easiest way for someone to befriend Ruby is to toss a ball for her to catch or fetch. You then have a friend for life. 💖

RUBY LOVES TENNIS BALLS!!! Ruby can also count tennis balls. She seems to know how many she has and where they all are at all the time. My husband will sometimes secretly slip one of the balls in his pocket as they walk. She will bring him another ball and he will throw it for her, but she will not chase that ball until he takes the ball out of his pocket and throws that one too. At times we will be playing ball and she will run off in a different direction only to return a few minutes later with another ball. I find her obsession with balls quite amusing perhaps because I have never had a dog that loved to play ball like this.

Last week I noticed that we were building a collection of balls at the house. There were six balls (five tennis balls and a rubber football) on the living room floor when I went to vacuum. It seems Ruby had been bringing some of her balls home from the farm. Ruby doesn’t need that many balls in the house and I, quite frankly, don’t want to chase that many balls around as I vacuum, so after Ruby and Ranger were in bed (in our bedroom) my husband picked up three of the tennis balls and put them on the shelf in the mudroom so he would remember to take them back to the farm the next day.

It was 2:30 in the morning when Ruby and Ranger woke me to let them outside. We made our way to the mudroom in the dark, as we always do, and I turned on the porch light before letting them out to do their business. When they returned a few minutes later I let them in, closed and locked the door and turned off the porch light. As I turned around, I could barely make out the figure of Ruby with her front feet up on the dryer. “What are you doing?” I asked and as I did, she got down and went to the shelf by the door put her front feet up, grabbed one of the tennis balls and took it with her to her bed. It was still dark. I had never turned on an inside light and the balls on the shelf were well above her sightline so how in the world did she know those balls were there? Smell perhaps?

Later that morning, around 6:00 a.m. my husband had gone to the farm to open up the chicken coop for the day, but he didn’t take the tennis balls at that time. Ruby came to me and wanted to go out. As we went to the mudroom Ruby grabbed another tennis ball from the shelf and took it with her while she went out to do her business, then she brought it back in the house with her. A few minutes later when my husband returned Ruby greeted him at the door and he gave her the third tennis ball.

The picture below was taken a few days after that incident.

As you can see there are still six balls on my living room floor. It seems that I am now destined to chase tennis balls with the vacuum. My only wish is that I could grow a tennis ball tree. LOL!

Thanks for visiting.

Blooms and a Bluebird

Birds, Flowers, Reflections, The Farm

Evening Primrose

Dianthus

Roses

Creeping Thyme

Salvia

Iris

Peony

Roses

Chives

Our Prayer Garden

Wild Roses

This spring I have been seeing a bluebird around the farm a lot. I really don’t know if I am always seeing the same one or there are more than one, because I have only seen one at a time. This afternoon I was able to capture a picture of it in the oak tree at our picnic area. Not the clearest picture but I think you can tell it’s a bluebird.

Thanks for joining me and have a great weekend.

Busy, Busy, Busy

Gardening, Making Curtains, New Shed, Reflections, Sewing

Hello and welcome!

The last few weeks have been very busy around here. That really isn’t uncommon for this time of year since it is gardening season. This year, however, our “busy” has included a couple other big projects that we have completed or nearly completed in the last two weeks. Are you ready for a look at what we’ve been up to?

Gardening

We waited until the last weekend in May, Memorial Day weekend, to begin planting our garden. It was a good decision since our last frost was earlier that week. On Saturday, May 27, we managed to get 48 tomatoes, 24 peppers, 24 cabbages, 12 broccoli and 12 cauliflowers planted – all plants that we had started from seed.

Keeping these plants watered then became a regular chore since we had no rain from that point until this past Sunday, June 11.

Later that week my husband went to the greenhouse and picked up a few additional plants – eggplant, kohlrabi, Swiss chard, celery and a couple of melons. We also put in the few peanut plants that I started from seed We did get a layer of straw mulch around the plants to help retain moisture and keep weeds down.

In the above raised beds we planted green bean and cucumber seeds, but we decided to wait on planting anymore seeds until we had rain in the forecast. We spent the next two weeks keeping the plants watered and watching the weather forecast. Since the forecast showed a good certainty of rain on Sunday, June 11, Saturday became planting day.

My husband planted two varieties of pumpkins and several varieties of winter squash. He also planted carrots, beets, Swiss chard, and dill. I planted a patch of sunflowers. We ended the day with a prayer asking the Lord to bless our efforts.

We were overjoyed and thankful when the rains came on Sunday. The gentle but steady rain soaked into the ground was accompanied by cooler temperatures that allowed the ground to retain the moisture. We’ve had more rain today (Tuesday) but not too much and we have rain in the forecast again on Thursday, so we do not anticipate having to water anything for a while.

Sewing Projects

In April, when Ken and Tina told us that they were buying a house, and had a closing date set in May, I asked if I could make curtains and matching pillowcases for Jackson’s and Addie’s bedrooms. Once they closed on the house, I asked Ken to measure the kid’s bedroom windows, then Tina and I took Jackson and Addie shopping at the fabric store.

Jackson selected this Mario cart fabric and a solid red trim and Addie, after much deliberation, picked out the pastel unicorn fabric with a pink glitter-infused fabric for trim.

I started by making the pillowcases using this tutorial that I have used in the past.

The curtains were my own design.

I added a 6-inch boarder (with the trim fabric) to the bottom of each panel and used the trim fabric to make the top loops for hanging.

In these pictures the curtains are hanging on windows in my home. The windows that they were made for are wider than the ones in the pictures so the top loops will not be so bunched up when the curtains are in their new home.

I am quite happy with the way these projects turned out and look forward to seeing them in Jackson’s and Addie’s new bedrooms.

Our New Shed (or is it a Barn?)

Last Thursday, we had a new shed built at the farm. Though its footprint is only 10 ft. by 12 ft. my husband said it is more of a mini barn.

The building crew (two men) arrived shortly before 9:00 a.m. with all of the materials and tools for building it. They were finished before 4:00 p.m. Quite impressive.

We purchased the shed from this company but when my husband originally called the company he was referred to a local dealer/contractor. Through the contractor he was able to order the shed by phone and arrange for delivery/assembly within about two weeks.

Before they came to build the shed my husband had to prepare the site where the shed would be located. He first had to move the old metal shed that this one was replacing. Then he leveled the ground and added several inches of gravel for a base for the shed to sit on.

It looked quite big inside until we started putting stuff in it. LOL. The loft provides extra overhead storage space. We had a few upgrades added to the base package. They were – the solid wood floor (instead of osb), the three windows, and the five-foot ramp at the entryway that will make it easier to bring in equipment with wheels on it.

We were both impressed with the quality of the materials and the workmanship. It was also nice that the shed was already primed (that is the brown color in the above photos) and ready for us to add the paint color of our choice.

We spent much of the day on Friday painting and a bit of the day on Saturday (but had to break from painting to get planting done). We only have a bit of trim left to paint but that will have to wait until dry weather returns. I haven’t taken any pictures of the shed since we started painting but, if you’ve been hanging around here for long, I bet you can guess what color(s) it is.

*If not here’s your clue – The question remains – will it be our Big Red Shed or Little Red Barn?

Thanks for visiting!

What’s been keeping you busy this spring?

Birds and Bees

Bees, Birds, Reflections

Hello everyone. I just thought I would share a few stories from this past week.

Fledging

Early this spring I watched for several days as a pair of robins flew in and out of our arborvitae bushes carrying building materials. I was hesitantly excited about having baby birds hatched in the bushes that I view from my kitchen window. I say hesitantly because these bushes are not always the best place to support a nest. High winds have a tendency to bend the branches. In past years I have seen eggs that have fallen from a nest under those bushes as well as baby birds that have fallen from the nest and died. Cats that roam the neighborhood also like to hide under those bushes and sometimes climb them.

After watching that pair of robins building their nest this spring they seemed to disappear for a while. I wondered if they had abandoned their nest. It was over a week ago when I noticed the pair coming and going again this time carrying food. I knew there were babies in the nest.

Sunday evening Ruby and Ranger were outside on the deck, and I was sitting at my desk. The window next to me gave me a clear view of the deck, the courtyard and the arborvitaes. Suddenly Ranger and Ruby went running down into the courtyard. As they did two birds came flying out of the arborvitae. One was an adult robin which flew up into the maple tree. The other was this baby which landed in the grass.

I watched it as it sat there for a while just looking sort of confused. Then it began to hop around in the grass. The adult robin stayed in the area observing what was happing with its young one. I’m not sure if it was time for this baby the fledge or if the dog’s sudden movement startled the birds and it accidentally tumbled out. I haven’t seen it around since nor have I seen the parents so I am not certain if this baby lived or not. I have, however, concluded that since the parents did not return, this was the only baby in the nest.

Swarm

Sunday evening my husband was sitting at the picnic table under the big oak tree. He said he could hear a lot of bees buzzing, and when he looked up, he spotted this large swarm of bees that had landed in the oak tree.

He wasn’t prepared to capture them that evening but decided if they were still there Monday morning he would because A) these bees came from our son-in-law’s hive that had survived last winter so they are apparently a hardy breed of bees. B) We had friends from out of state who were coming for a visit and picnic at the farm Monday afternoon, and we didn’t want bees buzzing overhead as we visited and ate.

The swarm was still in the oak tree on Monday morning so he took my camera to get a picture of them before he captured and rehomed them in this hive.

By the time we set up for our picnic only a few bees remained in the area.

Mourning

I think it was Thursday or Friday that my husband told me about a lone Canadian goose he spotted wandering in the field next to our property.

On Saturday when we arrived at the farm the goose was sitting in the grass near the pond. As we and the dogs went about our business we were surprised that the goose did not fly off. He just relocated in an out-of-the-way, wooded area where many of the chickens were hanging out.

He didn’t seem injured or ill but we didn’t see him eating and when my husband offered chicken feed and water he just hissed at my husband. He also hissed at Ruby and Ranger if they got too close. Just a warning that he wanted to be left alone.

When I did some online reading about geese, I found out that geese mate for life and if they lose a mate they will go into mourning, often wandering around looking for their partner. They may isolate themselves and not eat. I suspect that this guy lost his mate. I suspect they were nesting near our neighbor’s pond and his mate, and perhaps babies if they had any, fell victim to a fox. Heartbreaking.

The above picture was taken on Monday. He was still there when we were getting ready to have friends over. I decided to try to get him to leave the beach area since we wanted to be able to enjoy the beach with our company. As I approached the area where he was swimming Ruby came running up as well. When Mr. Goose saw Ruby making her quick approach he instinctively took to the sky. We were very happy to see him fly off. He first flew east then a couple minutes later he flew back over heading west. Hopefully he will join up with a flock and find a new mate.

Thanks for visiting!