Hello and welcome to August 2023. I don’t know about you but I’m still savoring this summer weather because before I know it we will be turning on the furnace and adding extra layers of clothing when we go outside. Many of our feathered friends will also be heading south.
From my 2023 wall calendar.
Our bird this month is the American Goldfinch also sometimes referred to as a wild canary.
Wishing you a wonderful August.
We were blessed to spend a few hours with Tina and Ken and Jackson and Addie on Saturday. The morning was cloudy with even a few light rain showers moving through but by the time they got to the farm around 2:00 p.m. the rain was finished, and we had as much sunshine as clouds. We even had a nice breeze to help keep the mosquitoes at bay for a while.
We started out by picking blueberries.
I’m not sure how many we picked but they did leave with a little over a quart of berries. I did see Addie eating them by the handful while we were picking so we likely picked much more than it appeared. As they were leaving I noticed Addie trying to open the container that the berries were in so I’m not sure if any actually made it home with them. LOL!
Then Tina and I took the kids in the pond. They are both trying very hard to learn to swim. They kept their floatation devices on and practiced kicking their feet and paddling with their hands. They are both seeming to catch on.
Meanwhile my husband and Ken went fishing. They were reeling in fish one after another. This large blue gill is a mystery fish. How it got in our pond is a mystery as we never put blue gills in there. The rest of the fish they caught were perch (we had stocked the pond with perch in 2013).
When they were finished fishing Ken took Jackson and Addie for a boat ride. (Those are some happy faces.)
The three-hour visit passed much too quickly, but we are so thankful for these precious moments with them.
Remember back in March when our new chicks arrived and I realized that we had 29 new chicks instead of the 18 that I thought I had ordered?
Over the spring and summer as we’ve watched them grow it became apparent that, coupled with the 9 old hens that we already had and even though we lost two of the young chicks, our flock had become too large. During the day, when the chickens were outside, we didn’t have problems, but at night when they were all going into the coop issues would arise. Old hens squawking and pecking at young ones and blocking their way into the coop, then the young ones began pecking at each other. 36 chickens are just too many for our coop. We also discovered, as the chicks grew, that instead of just three roosters that we ordered, we had four roosters. 4 roosters were also too many.
We decided to try to rehome some of our flock. I remembered when we were expecting our chicks that my sister said she and her husband were considering getting chicks again. I knew that they hadn’t acquired any yet, so I decided to offer her some of ours. After some consideration they decided to take six hens and a rooster.
My husband, who was still concerned about having too many roosters. was in the farm store one day and mentioned our abundance of roosters to another customer. The man said he would be happy to take any extra roosters off our hands. Come to find out he lived just down the road from us so last Tuesday morning my husband packed up two of the roosters and delivered them to their new home.
Then on Sunday my sister and brother-in-law were ready for their new flock, so my husband selected six hens and a rooster and took them to their new home, where my sister told me that they were settling in nicely.
I am happy to report that peace has been restored to our coop. There is no more pecking and squawking when they are going into the coop and as the saying goes “Happy flock – happy farmer”. (Okay. I just made that up :))
I hope you have a great weekend.
Thanks for visiting!
Our blueberry harvest is well underway and an abundant harvest it is. My husband and I picked about 5 quarts last Thursday, then on Sunday my sister brought her grandkids out and they picked another 5 or so quarts. The berries are still ripening so I hope to have my grandkids over this weekend to pick some as well. Blueberries are Addies favorite.
We have also been picking and enjoying Swiss chard and green beans.
In the last several weeks we have had more than enough rain. The ground is saturated, and our brassica vegetables are suffering because of it. You might remember as we wrapped up June our gardens were looking great, especially the cabbage.
They are no longer looking good.
Some of the other plants are showing signs of stress as well like yellowing leaves (squash), slow growth (beets) and split fruit (tomatoes).
This fawn was on the inside of our fence.
and was not sure how to get out.
While its mother was on the outside of our fence apparently wanting to get her baby out. I’m not certain how the young one got inside our fence. I don’t think it was born on our property because it looked to be at least several weeks old and I think we would have encountered it before now. I don’t think it jumped over the fence because it didn’t seem to know how to jump back over. In the evenings, when the dogs are not at the farm, we sometimes leave the gate open, so a likely case scenario would be that momma brought the baby in when the gate was open and we unknowingly locked the baby in.
That evening we again left the gate open hoping the little one would find its way out and back to momma. We haven’t seen it around since that day so we are assuming it found its way out.
The prayer garden is abuzz with bees. Honeybees and bumble bees among other pollinators are heavily foraging the lavender, thyme, oregano and tickseed.
But our back field also has lots to offer pollinators. Perhaps we should call it a”Field of Pollinator Dreams”.
The field is blanketed with white clover as is most of our farm. It is a favorite of the honeybees.
Clover is a very common flavor/ingredient in honey.
Over the years this birdsfoot trefoil has spread throughout the field. We have witnessed a lot of honeybees collecting nectar/pollen from its blossoms.
Canadian thistle also attracts bees and other pollinators for its nectar. As it goes to seed I expect we will see goldfinches in the field as thistle seed is a favorite food of theirs.
Milkweed is another plant that is prevalent in our back field this year.
Milkweed is sometimes known as the monarch butterfly plant because these butterflies lay their eggs only on milkweed plants and their hatchling caterpillars feed exclusively on milkweed.
We often see the monarchs fluttering above and around the patch of milkweed. There are many.
Monarchs are not the only ones with an appreciation for the milkweed as I also witnessed a honeybee on a milkweed flower and caught a quick glimpse of a hummingbird darting around the patch.
The most northern part of the field is filled with sweet clover this year. This biennial is another blossom that is loved by honeybees.
This monarch is not on a milkweed plant but perched on another plant near the milkweed patch.
I think of this field as ‘nature at its best’. It has had very little human intervention. It just grows wild. We keep some paths mowed around and through it during the summer for walking and riding the 4-wheeler and each fall after the vegetation dies we mow the field. This mowing helps to spread the seeds of plants like the trefoil, clover, thistle and milkweed so over the course of a few years what started out as just a couple of plants has become large patches of that plant.
Cattails swaying in the breeze.
Balloon flowers in bloom.
Daylilies and a hidden damselfly.
A closeup of the damselfly.
Believe it or not this is a bluebird house. Over the years we have seen different birds make their homes in the life preservers near our pond. A few days ago my husband mentioned seeing a bluebird fly out of this life preserver. Since then I too have witnessed the bluebird flying out of there. It doesn’t seem to have eggs inside so perhaps just using it for shelter or a playhouse. 🙂
Thanks for stopping by. I hope you are having a great July!
Since heavy rain was in our forecast for Tuesday and Wednesday, we decided Monday was our best opportunity to harvest the garlic. My husband set out Monday morning and in less than two hours had all 330 bulbs dug or pulled out.
That evening I went out and tied them in bundles of 10 and Tuesday morning he hung the 33 bundles upstairs in the barn to dry.
Our lavender is in full bloom.
It is the centerpiece of the prayer garden. It is surrounded by roses, tickseed, and lilies that are blooming as well. It smells heavenly (unless you ask my husband who is not a fan of the fragrance)
and it is being laboriously foraged by countless honeybees and bumble bees.
Thanks for visiting.
Do you like the smell of lavender?
Do you like the smell of garlic?
Don't Eat It! Soap and Skin Care 