Category Archives: Deer

Flowers, Pollinators, Fungus and Breakfast With the Chickens

Bees, Chickens, Deer, Dragon Flies, Flowers, Nature, Reflections, Summer, The Farm, Wild Flowers, Wild Mushrooms

Flowers and Pollinators

The hibiscus bushes are blossoming.

There are three bushes in a row. The two on the ends have the deep red blossoms. The one is the middle has light pink/white blossoms.

This year we have an interesting phenomenon. One of the end bushes has both the red blossoms and the pink blossoms. This has never happened before.

The only explanation I can come up with is that these bushes drop seeds every year and small plants sprout each summer. I end up pulling them so I don’t know how long it would take for one to mature. Perhaps a seed from the pink bush grew up amongst the red bush and has become mature enough to produce flowers. So this is actually two bushes that have commingled.

Many of the plants are suffering from too much rain. The oregano leaves are turning yellow and orange. I have been tempted to cut them way down.

But the bees are enjoying the flowers

as are the butterflies, so I will leave them until they are done blossoming.

Dragonflies are not really pollinators but I do love having them around, especially since they eat things like gnats and MOSQUITOS. (Bring on the dragonflies!!!) This one was resting on an Agastache Kudos Mandarin plant, AKA Hummingbird Mint, that we planted this year.

The honey bees were foraging in the anise hyssop.

This patch of wild flowers attracts a lot of pollinators.

Look closely – how many bees do you see on the Mountain Mint in this photo? I see at least 3.

How about this one? (two?)

Honey bees aren’t the only pollinators enjoying these plants. The blue mud dauber wasps like them as well. This is the first year I have seen this type of wasp.

Honey bees like the cone flowers,

and I even spotted some foraging the purple loosestrife. That is something that we haven’t seen in the past.

It took a while but this beauty finally posed for a picture on a marshmallow plant.

Telling it to “hold still” did absolutely no good so I just had to be patient. I think this butterfly is called a Red Spotted Purple.

Fungus

When I did my mushroom post I had forgot about these puff ball mushrooms that grow every year on the hill where we someday hope to build a root cellar. They are well hidden beneath other weeds that grow up around them so we usually don’t even know they are there until late fall or winter when all the foliage dies. By that time they are just large dust balls.

When I first noticed these, a week or so ago, they were bright white. I didn’t have my camera with me at that time and as you can see they have since turned various shades of brown.

Each of these fungi is between 12 and 20 inches across.

Breakfast With the Chickens

Sunday morning I went to open up the chicken coop. When I do this my routine is to first fill their water dish. I then spread some chicken scratch on the ground in piles around the chicken yard, then I fill their feed dish before I open the coop to let them out. I do this because I know that the first thing they want to do when they come out is eat (except the rooster but we won’t talk about what he wants). If I were to let them out first I would likely have the whole flock following me to the feed can, then I would be tripping over them as I tried to the scatter scratch.

As I was filling their feed dish I noticed a deer approaching the chicken yard. She noticed me as well and we stopped for a minute and stared at each other. I then finished what I was doing while she moseyed over to the pile of chicken scratch that was about twenty feet from the coop and began eating. I opened up the coop and the chickens scattered around the area some of them joining her.

I decided to get my camera to see if I could get a picture of this breakfast club. It was still pretty dark in the chicken yard as it is in a grove of large hickory trees so i wasn’t sure how the picture would turn out.

It wasn’t until I got home and viewed the photo on my computer that I realized

that I had experienced an alien encounter. (Where’s Will Smith when you need him???)

Even when she got out in the light her eyes glowed.

Meanwhile the chickens went on their way,

cluelessly searching for worms or grasshoppers and enjoying their worry-free life.

Thanks for stopping by. I hope you have a great week!

A Beautiful Morning

Deer, Reflections, The Farm

I Plan on doing a farm update soon but since I have a busy day ahead I’ll just share some photo’s from this morning at the farm.

A Busy Momma

In the field to the east of us I spotted this momma deer with her young – TRIPLETS! It’s quite common for us to see momma’s with twins and we have seen triplets in the past but they are far less common.

The sky was just gorgeous as the sun came up this morning.

I wish you all a beautiful day!

Hidden Pictures

Deer, Reflections, The Farm,

Who’s hiding in this picture?

Can you see it?

(Keep scrolling)

How about here?

(keep scrolling)

There it is. Isn’t it cute?

This baby deer spent 3 days hanging out in the area around our barn. When my husband first encountered it he or she was lying on a stack of lumber that my husband had left on the porch of the barn. We were inclined to think that it was abandoned, or more likely orphaned, because of it’s close proximity to the barn where we spend so much time. Also because it was there for so long. After those three days it was gone, so it now seems as though momma came for it, and more than likely it is now tagging along behind her.

Glimpses Of Autumn

Autumn, Deer, Reflections,

Summer has transitioned into fall and the scenery seems to be changing a little each day. These are some of the scenes we have observed over the past few weeks.

I think autumn is my favorite time to decorate. We did a bit of this at the farm. The cut sunflowers didn’t last long though. The weather was still warm and they began wilting the next day.

The pumpkins and corn stalks will last throughout the season – assuming that a hungry or curious deer doesn’t decide to take a bite.

The outdoors really doesn’t need much help with decorating though. Nature does a fine job. Maple trees seem to show their fall color early.

From pale yellow to bright red, they make an gorgeous display.

The red leaves on this oak tree had me baffled. It wasn’t until I got close that I realized that the red leaves were not oak, but a Virginia Creeper vine that was climbing on the tree.

Despite our early frost there are still wild flowers in bloom.

Some of our hardy annuals are still providing color as well.

Even a few hibiscus buds have continued to open.

The leaves are beginning to coat the ground

and drift on the water.

Under an oak tree is no longer the best place to picnic – unless you don a hard hat to protect yourself from the falling acorns. Upon seeing and hearing the nuts fall I mentioned to my husband that I suspected there was a squirrel in the tree throwing the nuts down at us. He laughed and assured me that these nuts were just falling naturally as nuts do this time of year.

Interestingly there are no hickory nuts this year. Last year we had many hickory nuts and fewer acorns.

The frost turned the forsythia leaves a dark purple color.

Yet the lilac leaves remain green.

The deer are still comfortable grazing in the field.

They tend to disappear mid November once firearm season begins.

Thanks for visiting.

Do you enjoy decorating for the different seasons or holidays?

Dog Days Of Summer

Bees, Blueberries, Deer, Dogs, Dragon Flies, garden, garlic, garlic scapes,, Grandchildren, Lavender, Nature, Off Grid Irrigation, Pond, Prayer Garrden, Reflections, Summer, The Farm, Tractor, Watering, Windmill,

According to almanac.com the dog days of summer run from July 3 through August 11 which is normally the hottest and most humid time of year in the northern hemisphere. Around here every day is a dog day. Just ask Ranger and Trooper. But, yes, the HEAT IS ON and it is accompanied by a dry spell so keeping the gardens watered has been the main focus for the past week or so. If you are curious about how we manage that on our off-grid farm you can check out our off-grid irrigation system here.

In the mean time I put together a collection of pictures that I’ve taken over about the past few weeks to share with you.

This is how Ranger cools off on these hot days. (Did you know beagles can swim?)

and Trooper enjoys laying on the beach after a swim in the pond.

The grandbabies love the water as much as the dogs do.

Dragonflies are yet another creature that appreciate the pond.

This one is drinking water from the sand. Check out the honey bee (on the left) that photo bombed this shot. She too was coming to the beach for a drink of water.

This beauty hung out with us on the beach, for a couple of hour yesterday evening, fluttering about and pausing now and then to rest or perhaps get a sip of water.

One last pond picture because we can never have too much cuteness. LOL.

Speaking of cuteness, here is a double dose – twins.

The lavender is gorgeous this year and the bees and butterflies are all over it.

We have transitioned from strawberry season to blueberry season. On the same day that my husband, and (daughter) Kara, picked the last of the strawberries, I took (daughter) Tina, and Jackson and Addy into the blueberry patch to pick the first ripe berries. While Kara took her 3/4 of a basket of strawberries home. Addy couldn’t wait, so she ate all of the blueberries we picked while they were still at the farm.

Start them off young – that’s my motto. They posed for a group photo then dad took Jackson and Addy, one at a time, for a ride on the tractor.

The garden is flourishing. I have harvested basil and calendula flowers twice so far.

We have green tomatoes, peppers starting to develop, blossoms on the eggplant,

blossoms on the green beans and the corn is knee high.

We cut garlic scapes (check out this post to learn more about scapes) about two weeks ago and will be digging garlic soon.

It seems that every summer our back field is dominated by different plants. This year it is full of clover and birdsfoot trefoil and I think it is just gorgeous. It’s also great bee food.

I’ll leave you with one last photo of this pair who stopped by our deck for a short visit last week. They were kind enough to stay so I could get a photo then they hurried on their way.

Thanks for visiting and remember – stay hydrated, breathe deep and stay well.

Are you having a heat wave?