I think it was our first fall at the farm when I planted a bunch of tulip bulbs in the area that has since become our prayer garden. I remember arriving at the farm one morning the following spring and being delighted that several of the tulips were blossoming. They were so pretty. Later that day when we returned for our afternoon walk all of the pretty blossoms were missing and all that remained were the stems and the leaves. I wanted to cry. Thus began our love-hate relationship with deer.
Our First Tulips
After fencing the farm two years ago and then fencing in the prayer garden last year, we thought it might just be safe to plant tulips. We planted 4.
The first one to open was red. I thought this fitting since the red tulip is a symbol for Parkinsons Disease awareness and April is Parkinsons Awareness month.
The yellow one opened one day later.
And a second red one opened today. I expect the last one will open tomorrow. It looks like it will be another red one.
White hyacinth with mini daffodils.
Peach Tree
We planted a peach tree last year and it was doing well this spring
Peach Tree
so, we decided to plant a second one. Both are blossoming. It would be nice to pick a few peaches in August.
Forsythia
Lots of Daffodils
Sweet Cherry Tree
We planted three sweet cherry trees last year.
Sweet Cherry Tree
The above two have nice blossoms. I would be thrilled to pick a handful of sweet cherries this year.
A honeybee enjoying the dandelions. We lost our bees over the winter and decided not to start a new hive this year so it’s nice to know there are still bees in the area.
A wildflower that popped up and I am still trying to identify. If you know what it is, please tell me in the comments section.
My husband found the killdeer sitting on her nest. There are four eggs in the nest. She is very camouflaged. Can you see her? (Look in the foreground.) He marked the area with the yellow flag so we remember to stay away from it.
Thanks for visiting! What’s blossoming in your area?
This week turned out to be much like I expected. Robins and red winged blackbirds have returned to the area and the daffodils are poking up through the ground. The garlic had actually sprouted last fall but it has now resumed growing after its winter break. I have yet to hear the frogs sing.
Last year I made this bird house out of corks. We hung it in a tree at the farm. It was late spring, and I suspect the birds already had their nests built so this house went unoccupied. I am hoping someone will make it home this year.
Crafting
I finished the afghan I was crocheting (picture above) this week and started another. The one I am making now will be bigger than this one. It is the paw print pattern that I like to crochet. I intend to donate it to the Humane Society so they can raffle it off at one of their fundraisers.
When the Grass is Greener
Last spring our neighbor decided to expand the area where he lets his horses graze. Our fence is their barrier where our property meets his.
Colby Jack has discovered that this time of year the grass on our side of the fence is greener and tastier than what is in his pasture.
The problem is that he is not quite tall enough to reach the grass without bending the top of our fence.
Here’s a closer look. Can you see how the top part of the fence is bent over? Last year the owner strung an electric wire to keep Colby Jack away from our fence, but it didn’t stay in place very long. We haven’t complained because we feel bad for the horses that they are not provided better quality feed. At least the fence still keeps Ranger in.
A Dip in the Pond
It is way too early for me to go in the pond. There was still ice on it yesterday,
but that didn’t bother Ruby who had to go looking for minnows or tadpoles.
Playing in the Dirt
In the last several years it has become sort of a tradition for us to pot up some pansies in early spring and set them in the flower bed along our deck. They are bright and cheery and add some much-needed color while we wait for everything else to come back to life. On Thursday my husband made my day by going the greenhouse and coming home with two flats of pansies.
So, I got to play in the dirt. 🙂
There were 36 pansies in the two flats, and I divided them into 12 pots. Oh, so pretty. We may still have a few nights when temperatures drop well below freezing, but the nice thing about have these in pots is that we can bring them indoors to protect them from the cold.
While I was “playing in the dirt” I planted some spinach and pea seeds that we will grow in containers on our deck. I don’t think it’s too early since these are cold season crops.
My husband spent a little time with his hands in the dirt as well. Since we grow most of our plants from seed, he started eggplant and several types of peppers that we will grow indoors under grow lights until late May when we can get them into the garden. He will be starting tomatoes next. Planting season has begun!
Overall, it was a good and productive week and now that spring has sprung it only gets better from here. 🙂
To get caught up on my posts I’ll start with a look around the farm These pictures were actually from last week so I’m still a bit behind. 🙂
Chickens
Our youngest chick hatched on June 29th.
My husband named her or him (it’s still too early to tell if this is a hen or rooster) Strawberry because when he took the flock some strawberry tops that I had trimmed she grabbed one and gobbled it up. Strawberry was probably less than two weeks old at the time. He or she still sticks close to momma, not necessarily because it is still being trained or cared for by momma, but it doesn’t have anyone its own age to hang out with.
These are 2 of the chicks that hatched on May 12. They are beginning to look more like adult chickens and we are certain that one is a rooster. My husband even heard him try to crow one day.
Rex is our roo from last year. He is the daddy of all the chicks that hatched this year. He is a bit of an odd bird. He does the normal crowing sound of a rooster (Ur Ur Ur Ur URRRRR!) but also makes a loud cawing sound (Arrrr!) that I have never heard a rooster (or any chicken) make before.
What’s Blooming
Hibiscus in bloom.
Cosmos.
Wild flowers
The Pond
On some of these hot days I’ve found a dip in the pond quite refreshing and a pleasant way to get in a workout.
Garden News
Keeping the gardens alive has been a huge challenge this year. The weather has not been kind. Both June and July were very wet and all of the plants have been stressed at best. My husband has spent many hours weeding and fertilizing. Doing anything he could think of to keep things alive and growing.
I think he’s done an amazing job. I really thought we would have more crop loss than we have.
Acorn Squash
Another type of winter squash.
Sweet corn and Melons
Tomatoes (they may be small but they taste great!)
Sunflowers
Cucumbers and Eggplant
Green beans and Beets
Fruits
We had an amazing blueberry crop this year. We began picking in June and just finished picking last week. I lost track of how many we harvested as we were eating them fresh, freezing some and having friends and family pick and take what they wanted.
We have some apples that are looking good and if we can keep the birds away, we should have a decent harvest.
We also have a lot of grapes that are looking good.
We have put netting over them to try to save as many as possible for us. Homemade grape juice is one of our favorites!
We been having some nice weather this week so I thought maybe you might join me for a walk at the farm.
One of the first things you might notice is that our neighbor to the east, who has horses, extended their corral. The fence that my husband put up last spring is their barrier to the west, so they come right up to our property line. For the first couple of weeks Ruby and ranger would go over and bark at them, probably thinking they were doing something they shouldn’t. But Ruby and Ranger have since gotten use to them being so close and while Ruby and Bernard might touch noses through the fence, she no longer has an issue with them being there.
Ruby greets Bernard and Colby Jack
My husband said that every morning when he goes to open up the chicken coop Bernard and Colby Jack greet him at the fence. He likes to have a couple of carrots or other treats for them.
Bernard
They are very friendly horses, especially when there are treats to be had.
Colby Jack
The chickens out enjoying the nice weather. The hens started laying more eggs this week. For several weeks we have only been getting between zero and two eggs a day, but in the last four days we have collected 18 eggs.
Rex, our rooster, is one of the chicks that we got last spring. Unlike roosters we have had in the past he not aggressive toward people or the dogs. It’s nice not to worry about turning my back on him.
Garlic Sprouts
They are a bit difficult to make out in the above picture, but the garlic is about 4 or 5 inches high. I spotted daffodils, lilies and irises sprouting as well.
While things have started to dry out a bit this week the pond is still running over its bank. This is the highest we have ever seen the pond this time of year.
Most of our beach is under water.
As I walked down the west property line I loved this view of the barn.
The thin layer of ice that covered much of the pond early this week has since melted since temperatures reached up into the 50’s and 60’s F on Thursday and Friday.
There is still plenty of time for winter weather to return but we will certainly appreciate these nice days while we have them.
November, like the rest of this year, seemed to pass by lickity-split, and I didn’t even have a lot of pictures to record our activities. I think that’s because a lot of our time was spent organizing. Organizing really doesn’t make for good photography. My husband spent countless hours organizing in the barn and I sorted some areas in the house, finding things that could be given away or thrown away. There is still a lot of this to do but we’ve got a good start on it.
Progress at the Farm
We did have some nice weather in early November, and I spent some time at the farm working with my husband. It was November 10th when he began cutting trees.
Together we developed a plan for cutting and cleaning up the cut trees but before we started my husband wanted to build a new sawbuck. A sawbuck is a tool that is used to hold a log up off the ground so it can be cut into smaller pieces. Our old sawbuck, which was already old several years ago when a neighbor gave it to us, was pretty wobbly and worn out, so my husband used the old one as a pattern to make this new one.
Sawbuck
Once we got to the cutting and clean up, we started by removing all the smaller (in diameter) limbs.
We stacked these in an out-of-the-way spot. They will make nice habitat for wildlife. Rabbits, mice and birds will use this pile of branches for shelter especially in the winter..
Larger limbs were cut for future firewood and stacked where they will be left to season.
While the largest trunk portions, that will take even longer to season, were stacked in another area. This process has been repeated a couple times with my husband cutting down just two or three trunks at a time.
As of this writing there are still two large trunks of that tree to be cut down and then we will move on to the other trees that need to be removed.
A Visitor
November 14th was one of those nice weather days. I was standing in the driveway when I got a glimpse of a blue heron flying over the back field toward our pond. for a moment it was blocked from my vision by trees then suddenly it landed at the north end of our pond.
It didn’t stay long because Ruby was quick to spot it and it flew off as she headed in that direction.
My husband and I were both surprised to see it land in one of our maple trees. Neither of us have ever seen a heron in a tree before and we were even more surprised that the limb that it perched on did not bend, droop or sag.
The heron sat in the tree for at least 10 minutes before flying off. Shortly after that my husband took the dogs and I back to the house so I could fix dinner and when he returned to the farm, he reported that there were then two blue herons fishing at the edge of the pond.
Crafting
In early November I learned that our community was collecting hats, scarves and mittens to donate for the mitten tree at a local elementary school. These items would then be given to children who needed them. The deadline for the donations was November 22 so I figured I had time to make a few hats. I decided loom knitting was the quickest way to make them. To learn more about loom knitting see this post.
I used yarn that I had on hand and completed five hats and delivered them before the deadline.
Recommended Reading
This month I’m recommending two books, both of which I thoroughly enjoyed and are appropriate for the Christmas season.
The first book, A Log Cabin Christmas, is a collection of nine Christmas stories by different Christian authors. The stories about American pioneers take place in various regions of our country as it was being settled. These stories of hardships and triumphs are filled with inspiration and faith. I have read this book several times and for me it has become like a favorite Christmas movie that you might watch every year.
Synopsis from Amazon: Experience Christmas through the eyes of adventuresome settlers who relied on log cabins built from trees on their own land to see them through the cruel forces of winter. Discover how rough-hewed shelters become a home in which faith, hope, and love can flourish. Marvel in the blessings of Christmas celebrations without the trappings of modern commercialism where the true meaning of the day shines through. And treasure this exclusive collection of nine Christmas romances penned by some of Christian fiction’s best-selling authors.
Amazon gives this book a 4.5-star rating. Personally, I give it 5 plus stars.
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The second book, A Lineage of Grace, is not really a Christmas book, yet is fitting for the season.
Amazon synopsis: The Bible is filled with inspiring stories of unlikely candidates God chose to change eternity. This bestselling compilation in one volume contains five novellas about such people―women in the family tree of Jesus Christ.
Tamar. Rahab. Ruth. Bathsheba. Mary.
Each was faced with extraordinary―even scandalous―challenges. But they had courage. They lived daring lives. Sometimes they made mistakes―big mistakes. And yet God, in His infinite mercy, used them to bring forth the Christ, the Savior of the world. Their stories still hold great meaning and inspiration for us today.
Tamar risked her life and her reputation to be the woman she was called to be. See how God uses our circumstances and our steps toward Him, however faltering, to fulfill His plan.
Rahab was exploited by men who saw only her beauty, yet she held fast to her faith in God and was rewarded. Discover how God seeks and finds those whose hearts are tender toward Him, no matter how far away they are.
Ruth’s loyalty, especially toward her mother-in-law Naomi, helped her to persevere in the face of tragedy, and God gave her a second chance at love. Be encouraged that God will provide even when all hope seems lost.
Bathsheba’s scandalous affair with David did not end in one night. Learn that God is willing to restore those lost in the depths of despair who call out to Him.
Mary is one of the most revered women in history. But first, she was an ordinary woman striving to please God in the same way that women still do today. When God spoke, Mary responded in obedience which changed the world forever.
This book is considered fictional history, while the story of each woman is biblically based the author shares her vision of how the story played out using details that are not in the bible. To quote another reviewer, ” The author makes these women come to life. And shows how God loves unconditionally and used these very imperfect women as part of his plan to bring a savior, Jesus Christ into this world.”
This book also received 4.5 stars on amazon, and I would give it a five-plus rating. If it were still on my bookshelf I would not hesitate to read it again. It was, however, passed along to one of my sisters with a slip of paper inside which I wrote “Must Read”.
