Category Archives: Sunflowers

Glimpses of August

Fall, garlic, Grape Juice, Grapes, Hibiscus, Prayer Garrden, Reflections, Sunflowers, The Farm, Wild Flowers, Windmill, , , ,

Time flies, and before we know it September is more than half over and autumn is upon us. I admit I have been woefully neglectful about blogging this summer. I do hope you enjoy these glimpses of August.

I don’t like to play favorites and, in all honesty, I don’t think I could pick one flower that I like better than all others, but I do love hibiscus flowers.

They usually begin blooming in early August and continue to blossom well into September.

Pictures of these flowers are scattered throughout this post.

The plant in the above photo is one that started as a volunteer from seed from one of our original plants.

This plant in the above photo is the one I refer to as Mom’s hibiscus. I bought and planted it several years ago in honor my Mom’s birthday which is August 10th. It did not bloom that year.

The following year, and each year since, it begins blooming on or around August 10. This year it has been blooming for well over a month.

The Rose of Sharon are also a variety of hibiscas.

We have two varieties of Rose of Sharon.

It’s looking like we may have a decent grape crop this year.

The chickens have not managed to get them all yet.

(Note: the above pictures are from August. We have harvested some grapes this week and I’m making grape juice and jelly.)

Sun flowers are another flower that I love. This mammoth sunflower above grew as a volunterr in the middle of our squash patch.

Wildflowers

Goldenrod is beginning to bloom and while it would be near the top of my list of favorites, the bees are all over it.

These roses have blossomed continually throughout the summer.

One of my goals for the last week of August was getting the garlic cleaned.

I had about 300 bulbs to clip and clean so I spent a couple hours on Thursday and a couple hours on Friday cleaning garlic. I sat at the picnic table in the shade of the large oak tree and below are some of the views I enjoyed while I worked.

Chickens foraging in the area.

Blue skies littered with fluffy white clouds and dancing sunflowers.

Lush greenery and the windmill catching an occasional breeze.

Ranger hung out with me for a while.

While I was cleaning garlic my husband was cutting cattails and phragmites in the pond.

When he was finished, he brought me this red-winged black bird’s nest. It was still attached to a cattail that he had cut. Nesting season was over and I’m sure they will build new nests next year, so no harm was done.

Thanks for visiting.

Fall is in the Air

Bees, Black-eyed-susan, Chickens, Fall, Nature, Reflections, Ruby, Sunflowers, The Farm, Wild Flowers, Wildlife, , , ,

Fall is in the air but the temperatures this week were more like summer.

We’ve seen a lot of skies that look like this lately – deep blue with fluffy white clouds. How about joining me for a walk at the farm?

Ruby will join us, but since she likes to move faster than we do she will probably lap us a couple of times. Don’t worry if you hear something rustling in the weeds or the woods behind us it’s probably her.

I love these Black-eyed Susans that we planted along the fence two years ago.

Such a brilliant splash of fall color.

It was tempting to cut down this thistle, but the flower is so pretty. Maybe I’ll cut it just before it goes to seed.

Some of the chickens are enjoying their day foraging near the pond.

Maple trees are beginning to show their fall colors.

There are lots of bees in the golden rod.

Asters are beginning to bloom

The white ones as well as the purple.

And purple loosestrife is still in bloom.

This butterfly posed for a couple pictures then fluttered nearby as we walked the back field.

The oak trees are loaded with acorns this year.

Some have begun to fall.

The hickory trees have fewer nuts this year than last but still enough to feed some squirrels.

This Norway spruce is loaded with pinecones.

I wonder what kind of pinecone craft I can come up with. Do you have any ideas?

Oh my gosh! Elderberries! I’ll come back and pick these after we finish our walk. This is my first year picking elderberries. The first few years after we planted them I would wait for the berries to ripen but before they were ripe the birds would eat them all. I then discovered that the elder flowers are as good or better than the berries for making syrup or tincture, so I began harvesting the flowers in the spring. This year I forgot to harvest the flowers and while there are not a lot of berries here there are enough to make a small batch of tincture. 🙂

We’ve already seen a lot of the bees are foraging in the goldenrod and I’m sure some are in the sunflowers as well. One thing that you might notice, if the wind is just right, is the smell of honey drifting from the hive. This time of year, when the bees are in the goldenrod, is the only time that we smell honey while at the farm.

We still have a lot of sunflowers in bloom.

Some are so tall they are having a hard time holding their heads up.

Colby Jack (above) and Bernard (below) are waiting for some treats.

Should we give them some apples?

Somebody grabbed my camera while I wasn’t looking (and took my picture). You wouldn’t do something like that – would you?

Colby Jack and Bernard say, “Thank You for the apples”

I hope you enjoyed your time on the farm. Thank you for joining me.

Tuesday Morning at the Farm

Bees, garlic, Reflections, Ruby, Sunflowers, The Farm

It was a cool, crisp, fall-like morning despite being late August.

I visited the gardens and took a few pictures before getting started on my task for the morning.

The bees were all over the sunflowers.

This bird was perched on a goldenrod in the back field.

The above picture was my workstation for the morning.

These are the tools I used.

Cleaning the garlic was my task.

The sights, the sounds, the whole atmosphere was beautiful.

The sky was deep blue with fluffy clouds drifting by.

I couldn’t have asked for better working conditions.

Ruby stopped by to remind me to take time out to play.

It took about 75 minutes to clean that bucket full of garlic, including tossing the ball a couple times for Ruby. (I neglected to take a picture of the clean bulbs.) Conditions were equally as pleasant this afternoon when I finished cleaning the second bucket full of garlic. What a relief it is to have that job finished.

I am still canning tomatoes (31 quarts so far), dehydrating eggplant and freezing peppers. We have been so blessed with a bountiful harvest this year.

Thanks for visiting.

Garden Goodness

Apple Trees, Apples, Bees, Fermenting, Flowers, garden, garlic, Hibiscus, Peach Tree, Pollinators, Reflections, Sauerkraut, Sunflowers, The Farm, Tomatoes, , , ,

Hello and welcome. Despite having very dry weather, and doing our best to keep things watered, our gardens have flourished.

Blooming Beauties

Right now our hibiscus bushes are the star of the show.

Their large, showy flowers are stunning.

I don’t like to play favorites, but if I had to pick a favorite flower, it would probably be the hibiscus.

This hibiscus that I planted three years ago on my mom’s birthday was just beginning to open on Sunday, August 10, which would have been my mom’s 80th birthday.

Today it was in full bloom. 🙂

Several weeks ago we decided that we needed to rework the memorial garden the we planted this spring. This garden memorializes our parents who have all passed away. The beautiful lupine plants that were planted on either side of the rock were struggling, apparently not getting enough sun. My husband dug them up and planted them in the very sunny prayer garden and they have since developed new growth.

On Saturday, August 9, I visited my sister who wanted to thin her flower beds. My husband and I decided the shade loving hostas would do well in the memorial garden. My sister had just what we were looking for. She was very generous, selecting the large beautiful plants, instead of the ones the deer had eaten. The two light green hostas were one that my husband split before planting. I also brought home a lungwort plant that my husband split and planted (the dark green wilted plants). It looks sad after being transplanted but I read that it will develop new growth and should be fine.

Veggies

Our garden situation is changing daily and some of these photos are about two weeks old. I’ve just fallen behind in my blogging.

The honeybees that moved into our empty hive seem to be doing well.

Bees love squash and pumpkin blossoms.

And this is what can happen when a pumpkin or squash blossom is pollinated. 🙂

A basket of fresh garden goodness. My husband has been bringing home this basket full of veggies every day.

Eggplant, sweet corn, beets, green beans, tomatoes, banana peppers and cucumber were the haul on that day. Many of these vegetables are being eaten fresh. Others are being canned or frozen.

I made four pints of dill relish last week.

On Wednesday my husband and I made a trip to the orchard so I could can some peaches. On Thursday I canned 23 pints of peaches and had a dozen left over for eating fresh. Sunday, I made peach cobbler with five of the fresh ones.

One of our peach trees produced two peaches.

One for my husband and one for me. They were perfectly ripe when I picked them yesterday and so delicious. The orchard peaches, that were picked before they were ripe, were not as sweet as these.

They are not ready yet, but it looks like we will have a great apple crop.

The other thing the bees are enjoying right now are the sunflowers.

But who doesn’t love sunflowers.

This week’s projects include canning tomato juice (I did 6 quarts yesterday), making sauerkraut (I started it fermenting today), and cleaning garlic (tomorrow or Thursday).

Thanks for visiting.

September 2023 – Farewell Summer

Apples, Autumn, Fall, Firewood, Flowers, Reflections, Sunflowers, The Farm

Hello and Welcome!

When I last wrote, back on September 13, my husband and I were working on splitting and storing firewood also preserving our apple harvest. This post will pick up there.

Apple Harvest

We had a great apple harvest this year so I was able to can about 16 pints of apple sauce and freeze enough pie filling for six pies. We also gave our neighbor a couple crates of apples as she was canning sauce and making pie filling as well.

Firewood

We continued to work on cutting, splitting and stacking firewood for the next couple of weeks.

Since we use firewood in our fireplace to supplement heat from our gas furnace (trying to keep the gas bill down) this supply would likely last us at least two years.

In addition to moving all of the firewood from our proposed building site my husband spent a lot of time sorting and moving other equipment that we had stored in that area. Much of it was relocated as you see in the photo above.

House Planning

We have spent a lot of time this month planning our “dream home”. Picking the location on our property was something that didn’t take a lot of thought as we both agreed that it would be overlooking the pond.

In the above picture the house will be directly across the driveway. The large maple tree in the center of the picture will have to be cut down, as will two small oak trees behind it. We have also decided to take down the maple in the right-hand side of the picture so it doesn’t cause problems with the house as it gets bigger.

I expect my husband will begin cutting these trees within the next week. This is a big job and is going to take a while.

When I took the above picture I was standing in the area where our kitchen will be. There will be a window above the kitchen sink so I will never hate washing dishes. 🙂 The house will set up a bit higher so the view will be a bit different but at least this gives you an idea of what it will look like.

The above picture was taken from the opposite end of the pond. I zoomed in to try to capture the 4 orange flags marking the footprint of the house. If you look really close, you might be able to make them out. There are two just to the right of the maple tree on the left and two more to the right of the maple that is to the right.

Selecting the location was the easy part. We have also been working on designing the home. Our first thought was to buy a modular home (a home that is premade in a factory then transported to the site in sections and attached to the foundation) but after looking at countless floor plans, we were unable to identify one that we loved. It seems we are not very easy to please.

We are now exploring the possibilities of a stick-built house. It is supposedly more expensive to build this way but by designing our own home we may be able to cut out some of the unnecessary (for us) things that would come with a modular along with wasted space, thus bringing the costs more in line.

I did find this website https://archiplain.com/ that has been a great help in putting our design thoughts on paper. (It was free, and I didn’t have to download anything. 🙂 ) After about two weeks of designing, measuring, discussing, revising, measuring, revising, discussing, revising and so on, we met with our potential builder earlier this week to give him the rough plans. We did meet at the farm so he could see the proposed building site as well. We hope to hear back from him in the next few days on what it would cost to build the basic shell.

We also met with an excavator who would build the septic field and prepare the area for the home foundation. We are looking forward to getting an estimate from him soon as well.

Meet Taffy

In August my dad lost his companion dog, Baby, to cancer. Dad lives alone and doesn’t get out much. He has close neighbors, but Baby was his best friend – the reason he got up each day. So, when he called me a couple weeks ago and said he needed another dog I wasn’t surprised. I was a bit nervous because I knew it would have to be the right dog – an older dog who was content to spend a lot of time lounging around. I began looking at the website of our local shelter but also began praying about finding the right dog.

When I read the description of the dog named Taffy, a 7-year-old, lab/boxer mix who is a couch potato and loves to give kisses, I knew she was worth considering. I didn’t want to jump into anything so I decided to wait until the following Monday to see if she was still available. I talked with my sisters and my husband about the situation and we all talked to God about the need to find the right dog for dad.

On Monday I contacted the shelter and made an appointment to meet Taffy. Since I didn’t see any reason that it wouldn’t be a good match, I called dad and asked if he wanted to meet her. That afternoon I picked him up and returned to the shelter. It didn’t take dad long to decide that she was going home with him. Since she was scheduled to be spayed on Tuesday, we couldn’t pick her up until Wednesday.

On Wednesday afternoon my husband and I went to the shelter to pick up Taffy and take her to her new home. I was glad that he offered to go along since A) I wasn’t sure how Taffy would do riding in a vehicle (she did fine) and B) I wanted him to meet (and like) her. (If it ever comes to the point where dad can’t take care of her I’d like to be able to give her a home.)

She been at dad’s for just over two weeks now and they seem to be doing well. In talking with dad over the last couple of weeks I found out that he had seen Taffy’s picture and profile online around the same time I did. He had also been praying about whether she was the right dog for him.

I do think that this dog, who had been at the shelter for at least a month, and was grossly underweight, needed dad as much as he needed her and with all those prayers going up, I can only believe this is a match made in heaven.

A Few Fall Pics

We discovered a new wildflower on the farm.

There were several plants tucked away in a corner that we don’t visit too often. I took some pictures and showed my husband. The next day he went to see them and found a tree frog sitting on a leaf of the plant. 🙂 He came home and got a wildflower identification book off the shelf and discovered that this flower is called closed gentian, bottle gentian or closed bottle gentian. It’s a good thing we didn’t wait for the blossoms to open to try to identify it because they don’t, hence the name closed gentian.

It wasn’t our best year for sunflowers. The mammoth sunflowers that I planted didn’t have a chance. They first battled against too much rain then the ones that looked like they might make it got eaten by deer. The variety pictured above were in a fenced area and managed to survive the overabundance of rain. It was lovely patch which the bees and the birds appreciated.

The weather remained warm throughout September and most of this first week of October, but we’ve been seeing fall colors for several weeks now.

The rain that came two days ago ushered in cooler, more fall-like, temperatures that will hopefully bring an end to our mosquito plague. I expect leaf cleanup will begin soon.

Recommended Reading

Last month I mentioned that I would possibly do some posts about books that I have read. Since I normally read when I go to bed at night, I read several books in September. They included The Carousel and The Looking Glass both by Richard Paul Evans, an author whose books I have come to enjoy. Both are books that I would recommend to anyone who enjoys a heartwarming love story.

A third book which I really enjoyed was Bad Ground by W. Dale Cramer. It’s more than just a love story and I think it would appeal to a wide range of readers.

The Synopsis reads:

Poignant and thought provoking, this is a down-to-earth, sometimes humorous novel filled with suspense, action, redemption, and even romance. Seventeen-year-old Jeremy Prine decides to honor his mother’s dying wish and seek out his estranged uncle who was badly burned in the accident that killed Jeremy’s father. He finds the man working as a hard-rock miner in the south, an extremely dangerous occupation. His uncle seems a bitter and lonely man, but Jeremy senses more beneath the surface. Against his uncle’s wishes, Jeremy takes a job as a miner and soon his young faith is tested by his rough and gritty co-workers, the threat of danger…and the possibility of love.

It has a 4-star rating on good reads, and I would give it 4 stars out of 5 as well.

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/184446.Bad_Ground#CommunityReviews

Thanks for visiting. Has autumn brought cooler temperatures and colorful or falling leaves to your part of the world?