Baby Killdeer 3.0

Birds, Killdeer, Reflections, The Farm

I’d been checking the garden killdeer nest daily, knowing that the eggs should be hatching soon. On Wednesday morning we still had four eggs and a parent nearby warning me not to get close. On Thursday morning around 8:30, when we arrived at the farm there was a lot of killdeer noise.

As I waked toward the nest I saw two killdeers fly off. I also saw two parents in the area screeching and doing their broken wing act, trying to lure me away from their new family. While it may look like only three babies in the above photo #4 is there behind the others.

It was about an hour and a half later when my husband called me back to the garden area and told me to bring my camera. Four baby killdeers were running around. (I only managed to get three in the above photo.) Our first thought was that these were the babies that hatched last week but when we checked the garden nest it was empty.

(Here are two I could get by zooming in.) We were amazed at how quickly these babies were up and about. Nature truly is astounding!

Thanks for visiting!

Monthly Inspiration

Gardening, Inspiration, Reflections

Hello and Welcome. WOW! July is upon us and already the year is half over. Today I’m sharing some inspiration for our gardening season.

“A garden is a grand teacher. It teaches patience and careful watchfulness; it teaches industry and thrift; above all, it teaches entire trust.” – Gertrude Jekyll

“Gardens are not made by singing ‘Oh, how beautiful!’ and sitting in the shade.” – Rudyard Kipling

“A garden requires patient labor and attention. Plants do not grow merely to satisfy ambitions or to fulfill good intentions. They thrive because someone expended effort on them.” – Liberty Hyde Bailey

“Gardening is cheaper than therapy and you get tomatoes.” – Unknown

“The Earth laughs in flowers.” – Ralph Waldo Emerson

“If you have a garden and a library, you have everything you need.” – Cicero

Thanks for visiting and Happy July!

The Killdeer Chicks are Hatching

Birds, Killdeer, Nature, Reflections, The Farm

As of 5:30 PM today, June 28, two of the four killdeer eggs, from the nest that is in our driveway, had hatched.

This one somehow managed to get out of the nest. I thought it was injured or dead,

but my husband picked it up and put it back in the nest.

Like chickens, ducks and geese, killdeer chicks hatch covered in a fluffy down and will be up walking/running around within hours after hatching.

The unhappy parents were both nearby screeching and doing the broken wing act as my husband and I checked out their new family members.

We are very happy to see these little ones arrive so we can reclaim that section of our driveway.

It should be about another week when the next brood hatches. Stay tuned. 🙂

Thanks for visiting.

The Last Days of Spring

Cherries, Cherry Tree, Chickens, Dogs, garden, Killdeer, Nature, Pond, Power Outage, Rain, Reflections, spring, The Farm, Tomato Weaving, Tomatoes, Weather, , , ,

The Pond

Hot weather moved in before summer actually arrived. It was time to make the pond more welcoming, so on Monday, June 16 I started by raking some of the weeds and leaves out of the beach area before rototilling the beach.

My husband brought out the beach chairs and I cleaned them up. Then we set up the chairs with the umbrella and a small table on the beach.

Ruby enjoys the pond as much as I do. She brings her ball the beach so we will throw it in the water for her to retrieve.

And Ranger, AKA our beagle fish, goes for regular swims just to cool off.

I’m not really a swimmer. I like to be in the water, but I don’t like my head under water..

I use this floating ring as my watercraft. With my upper body floating on the ring and my legs kicking in the water I find I can get a good lower body workout. Probably as good as the recumbent or stationary bike. So, my goal, as often as possible this summer, is 30-60 minutes in the pond each day.

My first time in the pond this year. In spite of my objections my husband took my picture. At least he didn’t figure out how to use the zoom.

Chickens

My husband gave the chickens a mound of fresh topsoil to bathe in. We had a very happy flock.

Prayer Garden

Abundant color.

So pretty.

Killdeer Update

I didn’t get any pictures, but on Tuesday afternoon we saw our young killdeers take flight. They are still hanging around the garden area which is fine with us because they do eat a lot of bugs.

Despite the storms that brought high winds and torrential rain both of the other killdeer are still dutifully sitting on their nests.

Sweet Cherries

The second sweet cherry tree that we planted last year was more productive than the first. I harvested these on Wednesday morning. Enough to have with lunch. And that concludes our sweet cherry harvest for the year.

Except for this lone cherry that my husband discovered on our youngest tree (third tree). I never even saw any blossoms on that tree this year. I did pick and eat this last sweet cherry.

Before The Storms

With heavy storms in the forecast for Wednesday afternoon we wanted to make sure the tomato plants were supported. Last year my husband discovered a method called tomato weaving. No more cages or staking each tomato to keep them upright.

To weave tomatoes, you need a stake at each end of the row. You also need a spool of twine or heavy string. You tie the twine/string to the stake at one end of the row then string it out weaving it in and out of the tomato plants. (On the right side of one plant then the left side of the next all the way down the row.) Make sure that the string is up against the main stem of each tomato plant. At the end of the row pull the string tight, wrap it around the stake a couple times, then weave it back down the row in the opposite direction, making sure that the string is on the opposite side of each plant and up against the stem of each plant. At the end of the row pull the string tight wrap it around the stake and tie it off.

As the plants grow taller you can add another layer of weaving higher up on the stake.

Once we were done with the tomatoes I spent about an hour pulling weeds in the garden.

Here are some views from when I was on my knees in the garden.

This storm went to the north of us. It was after we went home for lunch that the storms hit our place.

A baby tomato, I would not have noticed had I not been on my knees in the dirt. 🙂

Sweet Peas

In April I planted sweet peas in two planter boxes on our deck.

This week’s harvest.

After hulling. We normally don’t grow peas because you have to grow a lot to get a decent yield. I ate these raw with my lunch. 🙂

After The Storms

On Wednesday the storms dumped three inches (7.62 cm) of rain on us. We didn’t have any flooding, but the ground was saturated with standing water in areas. We got more rain Thursday, Friday and Saturday.

Our gardens that were doing so well are now struggling. We will likely lose some tomato plants – hopefully not all.

The water level in the pond is up. It is littered with cottonwood seeds but the water is refreshing.

We are currently in the middle of a heat wave, experiencing record high temperatures and intermittent power outages but that’s a story for another day.

Thanks for visiting.