May Daze

This is my favorite time of year!!  It is exhausting and overwhelming, but all the green and growing and spring fragrances make me so happy. I wish computers were in smell-o-rama so you could get a whiff of this magnolia.

This summer we are hosting a series of WWOOFers  who already are making me feel more like we may actually be able to handle the demands of this little farm this summer.  Jessica is our first WOOFer/intern, who plans to work with us four days a week the entire summer. She is an accomplished baker (bonus for us!) and eager to learn the ins and outs of farm animals, dairying and gardening. Already she has been invaluable in helping us bake breads and pastries for the Farmers Market.  Here she is, putting a pizza into the wood-fired oven--our traditional supper on Friday bread-baking night.

Sourdough loaves rising.

Jessica’s reflection beams in the  bakery case at Saturday’s market. We sold out two weeks ago at the first market of the summer season, so  increased our production significantly last weekend and still sold out early. So, if you want one of these delicious goodies, better come to market before 10 a.m.!

Yesterday, Mother’s Day, Rog made a wonderful farm breakfast - farm eggs scrambled with garden asparagus and chives, bacon, Rog's sourdough bread, toasted, with Jessica’s  strawberry rhubarb jam, and rhubarb coffeecake.
A great power breakfast for a hard-working Sunday!

Rog hauled in several loads of topsoil to fill in bare areas and bumps in the farmyard, then fenced out the poultry and overseeded with grass. This is where weekend concerts happen and we especially want it to be green and lush for Laurel and Darin’s farm wedding at the end of June.

While Rog worked on the lawn, I transplanted three boxes of Lily of the Valley and Hosta roots my friend Jonya had  thinned from her garden and kindly given to me. Daughter Cadence and I weeded a large section of the greenhouse. And I shoveled many hundreds of pounds of muddy hay and manure from the incredibly deep,  muddy cow feeding area. (Will it ever dry out so we can get some equipment in there?!)

I strung temporary fence in the front yard and moved LaFonda and Jitterbug there all afternoon to mow the grass. Little did they know, the fence was not connected so had no zap to it. Happily, they did not test it.

Probably they just appreciated being in fresh, delicious grass and out of the mud and did not feel the need to go anywhere else.

The bees were busy  hauling in pollen and nectar. You can see the big yellow pollen packs on the back legs of a couple of these bees.

Dandelions and violets have finally popped out, giving the bees plenty of food sources.

Last year, I discovered a nearby ditch totally carpeted in  one of my favorite spring flowers, bloodroot. They are in bloom now, and I dug up some for my wildflower patches. (I hope it is not illegal, but my wildlife expert friend assures me it is not a bad idea to establish new populations.) I only took a few plants and did not make a dent in the ditch flowers.

The nice thing about the gray, rainy weather is that it makes for painless transplanting and prolonged blooming. The bloodroots seem very happy in their new homes. I hope they eventually expand into large drifts.

It has taken six years for the  Virginia bluebells to begin to expand, but now they are beginning to form a carpet of blue in my back yard, just as I hoped.  So many new baby plants, although most won’t bloom this year.  The blossoms should open any day now.

Birds are nesting all over the place! I love seeing the birds flying around carrying nesting materials, grass and twigs trailing behind them. We have wrens in the bluebird house, robin nests on the barn and house, and yesterday I discovered a cardinal nest in the honeysuckle vine that climbs the windmill.  There are two eggs in the cardinal nest so far, blue with brown speckles.

I haven’t found any of their nests yet, but we have a bunch of orioles, rose-breasted grosbeaks and hummingbirds frequenting the feeders.

Such a glorious time of year!!

Foggy Farm Morning, Fair Prairie Eve

We awoke early to a foggy sunrise this morning.

 Morning sun burning the fog off the lawn.

Hazy  flower garden.

Huge Lafonda this morning, but no calf today. For some reason (or maybe for no reason) she had draped her horns in  hay. 

Tonight after supper we went for  a walk through our  woods and prairie along the south side of the farm.

Amazing stands of purple coneflowers!  Acres of  echinacea.

What a treasure this prairie is!

The Prairie in July

Zinnie and I took a walk through the woods and prairie tonight to see what is growing mid-July this year.

The nettles are in full bloom - maybe it's a bit late to harvest them for pesto but I still intend to do so this week.

Another edible weed, wild parsnip, is in bloom and beginning to form seedheads. I must get out there this week in protective clothing and cut off those flowers to prevent them from expanding their territory next year.  If you brush up against the blooms in the sunshine and they are wet or you have sweaty skin, you will get a terrible blistery, painful rash that lasts forever. The root is edible, however -- this plant is ordinary parsnip gone feral.

After  five summers here, I am starting to know many of the wild plants that grow in our field.  This is fleabane, a tiny daisy-like flower that is at its peak bloom right now.

Huge drifts of fleabane on the south end of the prairie. I just  learned it is called fleabane because it deters fleas. With 3 dogs and 4 cats, I am happy to know that!

Blue vervain--I love this pretty flower, plus it  supposedly has many magical properties. It is the most potent protection against vampires, so I guess we shouldn't have to worry about them in our pasture.

Milkweed blossoms. I checked under the leaves of  several plants for Monarch caterpillars or eggs, but didn't find any. A few monarch butterflies  were fluttering around, however.

Wild cranberries in July -before they turn red.

One of the cool prairie grasses in bloom. I can't remember what this is called - it is about armpit tall.

The sumac spikes are beginning to turn red. We have acres of these.

I cannot describe how much I do NOT enjoy seeing these beautiful red sumac leaves in July! Summer has scarcely begun-- we  aren't ready to be reminded of fall yet.

Just What We Needed!

We are getting rain!  Ordinarily that would make me happy but the ground is so saturated already. Will it ever dry up enough to plant??

The worst is the pasture between the  barn and loafing shed, the sacrifice yard where the cows trample the grass to death all winter. By yesterday it was drying off enough that I didn't sink up to my knees when feeding the cows, but today it is back to deep muck in the heavy clay soil. With all the  deep  muck-boot- and hoof-print-potholes, it never drains. Maybe we should haul in a huge load of sand.

The ducks and goose are the only ones enjoying it. This is precisely the area I had plans for putting my raised beds for squashes and long beans growing on arched trellises!

The cows pretty much hang out inside the shed or on an island of spilt hay by their feeder.  They may be  wasting hay intentionally to enlarge their island. I wouldn't entirely blame them but at $6 a bale, it is a pricey island.

There is now a small pond between the loafing shed and the big compost pile.  The ducks and goose LOVE it.

Yesterday afternoon was so lovely I decided to do the chicken coop spring-cleaning. However, I was not able to push the wheelbarrow full of old bedding through the  mud (it wasn't nearly as muddy as today) to the compost pile, so that job  is postponed.

Despite the rain, I decided to take Zinnie for a walk through the prairie this morning and see what's growing. There is a moat around the big rock.

Some of the bloodroot I transplanted from a roadside ditch last spring is  coming up.

I planted one marsh marigold a couple years ago I got at the  Quarry Hill native plant sale, even though we don't really have a marsh, but do have sort of ephemeral wetlands. This year it must be very happy! It has buds already.

The mowed  path through the prairie is lush and green.  This is the  path of the future sculpture walk --we hope to start installing sculptures this summer.

Looks very lush, even though the buds haven't popped open yet. Once they do, you can't see the prairie for the  grass and bushes.

Walking through raindrop diamonds.

Meanwhile, back at the bird food court, dozens of impossibly yellow goldfinches.

I am especially happy that mourning doves have returned.  I realize now they disappeared the year of the great-horned owl family.  Maybe it is safe now that the owls have moved on (cross  your fingers.)

We have a beautiful new bird this summer -  rose-breasted grosbeaks! this morning they were at the feeders, but I wasn't able to get my camera in time for a good shot. The male has been serenading us with a sweet song.