Friday’s Farm Fotos for May 27

Another week on the farm, and another week with tornadoes skipping around us.  Fortunately, these were baby-sized compared to the mega monsters that went through this area a month ago.  Aside from losing more shingles off the roof, and a few smaller limbs down, we didn’t have any damage.

Except, I really do wonder about our roof after the last couple of storms.  Yesterday I picked up a shingle out of the front yard.  This morning I found one down by the pond.  Makes me wonder what shape our roof is in.  Kind of hate to find out though…. a good friend who had a lot more tornado damage got an estimate to replace their roof… and wow!  Around $15,000!!!

I believe I’ll think about non-storm-damage stuff instead.  Like the fact our Rosebay Rhododendron is blooming.

It isn’t growing very quickly, but every year it has more blooms than the year before, so I guess that’s progress!

Of course, a whole lot of other things are blooming now also, including the rose bushes.  The rambler blooms have come and gone, and the climbing roses about the same.  However, the tea roses still have blooms, like this one:

The Farmer has put up chicken wire fencing around his garden to keep out chickens, guineas and hopefully rabbits!

How do you like our bright blue gate?  That bit of improvisation was my idea.  It’s the ‘skirting table’ I used to use when cleaning fleeces before selling them.  I painted it bright blue because that happened to be the color paint we had on hand that would waterproof the wood.

Of course, The Farmer left one end of the dug up garden dirt for a chicken spa.

They were all fluffing their feathers in the dirt until they saw me and decided to move on.  Maybe they are embarrassed to be caught bathing? 

The guineas do their share of dust bathing also, but they can also be found scrounging around under the bird feeder. 

The squirrels also like to look around in the grass and see if they can find any sunflower seeds.  This one is watching for his (her?) chance to jump down and check things out.

Other entertainment this week included watching a bonfire down the road at the neighbors farm.  They cultivate a lot of fields, and grow a lot of sweet potatoes.  They store them in big wooden pallet boxes, and evidently some of the boxes were past their prime and they decided to burn them up.

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Unfortunately, it’s hard to get a good perspective on just how big this fire really was since there’s nothing nearby to compare it to.  When The Cave Geek got home from work, he came in to ask if we knew something big was on fire.  We went out and looked, and it looked like someone’s house was burning.  It was a relief to see it was just a bunch of old wooden boxes!

And that’s the news from around the farm this week!

Friday’s Farm Fotos

Another quick post!  I’m trying to finish up the main part of a writing project today!  So here are a few pictures from around the farm this week. . .

We are getting more and more iris blooms in the flower bed around the big oak tree in the front yard.

At this time of year, it’s easier to see how far up in the oak tree by the end of our driveway that the rambling rose has climbed.  The leaves of the rambler come out before the tree leaves.  Even at that, it’s kind of hard to show up in a picture, since there are so many trees in the background.

It’s pretty impressive when it blooms, but it’s one of those sights that somehow just translate well into a picture.

Nearby, our two dogwood trees are in bloom.  One has the traditional white blooms, and one if a “red” dogwood.

The honeysuckle is also blooming, which the hummingbirds love!

 Of course, what with everything blooming and producing pollen, there is a lot of stuff clogging up the gutter.  Big clumps of stuff falls out of the trees and lands in the gutters and on plants below.

The sheep are enjoying all this nice, lush spring grass.

And of course, you can also hear the sounds of springs.  The frogs are getting very noisy, both in the pond and in the bog area of the bottom pasture.  The bullfrogs lend a deep bass note, while the smaller frogs put in a tenor note.

And of course, there are the storms of spring… we have a big thunderstorm happening right now, and I have the television on in the living room so if there are storm warnings I’ll hear them.  (I don’t usually think to do that, but The Farmer admonished me this morning before he went off to work to pay attention to the weather warnings….)

It’s a normal springtime.  I miss the lambs and goat kids we used to have, but not the work, or the heartbreak when one dies.

Hope you are enjoying spring wherever you are (unless of course you’re ‘down under’, then .. happy fall!)

Friday’s Farm Fotos

Another week has slipped right by.  Spring is in residence most of the time, although old man winter rousts her out now and then for a light frost or some nippy weather.  But flowers are blooming and birds are nesting and the peacocks are screaming, so it must really be spring!

I saw the first iris blooming in the flowerbed around a big oak tree in our front yard. . .

And the Solomon Seal is starting to put out little dainty bells of bloom . . .

The Farmer saw some of the pond denizens out enjoying the warmer weather . . .

The frogs are also hopping all over the place.  I guess they’re just hoppy!

Another day I saw a bunch of the chickens congregating in the evening.  I’m not sure if it was a chicken conversation or a conversation of chickens.

It’s not exactly a hen party, because too many roosters are attending this event.

They’re not the only ones who hand out together. Here’s a line-up of the happy hoofers. . .

And now I must get back to work.  I am determined to finish up this book project!

Friday’s Farm Fotos

I’ve been pretty busy lately with a writing project, so haven’t posted much here.  I thought this would be a good time to do a photo round-up of pictures from around the farm this week.

Monday we had a thunderstorm with heavy rain and a tornado watch.  I watched but I didn’t see anything, thankfully.  Just lots of rain that came down in a hurry and made puddles and streams in the backyard…

We did have some pretty strong winds, even if there was no tornado in evidence.  You can see how the birdfeeder is swinging in the wind in this picture. . .

Once it stopped raining, Toby and I walked down the road towards the creek.  He decided it would be fun to wade through the floodwater running over the road.

The next day it was bright and sunny and showing signs of spring all over the place.  The miniature daffodils are blooming around the big oak tree in the front yard.

I noticed the wildflowers are making an appearance also, like this dandelion and violet.

Those colors would have been good when I was going to high school, since our school colors were purple and gold!

I especially enjoy the quince bush blooms.

I can remember the quince bush that grew by our steps going down the hill where I grew up.  This is part of that bush.

And last, we have a stark reminder of what happens when The Farmer decides to trim things:

He decided instead of having crepe myrtle trees they could be tall bushes.  Guess we’ll see how they react to such drastic pruning!

And that’s the way it is around the farm.  Have a great weekend!

Upon reflection. . .

I took this picture recently…

Kind of looks like a painting, doesn’t it?  Well, it hasn’t been Photoshopped with any special effects.  I will confess, however, that I flipped it vertically, and the picture is actually upside-down.

Yep, it’s a picture of a reflection in our pond of some nearby trees.

You can tell it’s a reflection easier in this picture.

Same deal, no photoshopping, I just flipped the photo.  But you can see some of the weeds along the bank of the pond along the top of the picture.

I like checking out the pond this time of year.  There’s no algae clouding up the water, and it’s easy to see the bottom.

Of course, there’s all those leaves on the bottom from the now bare trees reflected in the water.  And the lousy sweetgum balls!  At least I can’t step on them if they are on the bottom of the pond.

Guess I’ll just reflect on that.