Friday’s Farm Fotos

After a summer of few keets, a nesting trio decided to show up their peers and produced a HUGE bunch of keets. I counted a couple of dozen running around that first day.

They sure were fun to watch running along after the adults, trying to keep up on those very short little legs!

Once they get in the grass, it’s impossible to see them. Once in a while a little head bobs up, or you can see the grass moving.

Other sights in the back 40 (actually, it’s probably more like 5), include our matron ewe, Coconut, lazing in the shade of the trees on a hot southern summer day.

Not far away, our female llama, Keira (aka Miss Crankypants), is also taking advantage of the shade. When your wool is black, it really soaks up the heat from the sun! At least she now has a lot less wool to soak up the warmth.

What are YOU lookin’ at???

Down in the bottom pasture, we’re not mowing this year, or allowing grazing. We’re just letting it grow wild.

We have more than enough pasture for the animals without it, so it’s good for growing wildflowers and butterfly grazing.

I love the nice bright red of these Cardinal Flowers. They like the bottom pasture as it has a spring keeping part of it wet.

Of course, the hummingbirds love the Cardinal Flowers too. Those tube-like flowers are just made for hummers to sip some yummy nectar.

There is also a lot of Ironweed with purple flowers, and Joe Pye Weed with lovely dusky pink flowers. The butterflies really go for these!

The Farmer mows walking paths through the weeds, so Toby and I enjoy checking things out in the mornings, and looking at spiderwebs glistening with dew, bees buzzing around the flowers, and butterflies flitting about.

It’s a nice, serene way to start the morning.

We usually end up at the pond. There are droves of dragonflies dancing through the air above the pond. They stop for a rest on a weed now and then.

They fly around so much they kind of beat their wings ragged!

Then it’s one last glimpse of serenity before going back to work.

“The Mirrormere”

If you’re a “Lord of the Rings” fan, you might recognize that reference. Anyway, the pond has lovely reflections, even though the water is way down due to drought conditions.

And that’s a glimpse of the past week here on the farm!

Friday’s Farm Fotos

Okay, so it’s a cute-sey way to spell “Photos”, but I happen to be a fan of alliteration. 🙂 At any rate, just thought I’d show you a few pictures I’ve taken lately around the farm and hadn’t got around to posting yet.

First, we have a picture of our cat, Spot FenceWalker. He thinks he’s a dog. He and one of our “real” dogs, Toby, follow us around where ever we go outside. This is nice until I’m trying to take pictures, and my subject objects to having a cat and dog close by! In this picture, Spot was following me one night when I went out to check on the chicks.

And here’s a picture of the chicks I was checking on.

That’s a little pile of peachicks on the left with a couple of the younger chicks, and the older chicks huddled up in another pile under the volunteer sunflower.

Sometimes I find chickens in unlikely places. I often look out a window to see them perched on the other critters.

The ewe with the horns is Valrhona, and the one with the Buff Orpington hen perched on her is Papaya.

Other pretty things we can see from our windows include Goldfinches enjoying snacking on seeds and bugs around these tall blue wildflowers. (Anyone know what those flowers are called?)

We can’t have a bunch of pictures without one of The Farmer doing what he loves best… playing Firebug. 🙂

We seem to accumulate boxes and feedbags, so they need to be burned every so often before the feed room in crammed full of them.

The Farmer’s faithful companion likes to trot softly and carry a BIG stick.

The minute one of us goes out the door, it doesn’t matter what Toby is doing, he rushes to grab as big a stick as he can find, cause after all, then we might play with him, right?

And on final reflection, we have a heron who visited our pond this morning. We happened to catch him there when The Farmer went out to work this morning, and knowing how I love pictures, he waited for me to grab my camera and take some before heading on down to the car and scaring the heron away. (Thanks Farmer!)

I’m not sure whether the heron was there to grab some breakfast or admire its’ reflection, but it was a nice surprise to see it..

And there you have it, my collection of “Friday’s Fotos”. Hope you enjoyed them!

Spring Flowers

After a couple of rainy days, we had some sunshine this morning so I went looking to see if there were any wildflowers out in the woods. I figured it was about time for the trillium to show their faces.

Sure enough, I saw several peeking through last year’s leaves for the first time this year.

There were other wildflowers in evidence also…

And when I got back in our yard, I noticed even the lilac bush is starting to leaf out…

I do believe spring may decide to show up after all this year.

Is it a mini-Hobbit hole?

After I finished this morning’s critter chores, I took a short walk in the woods. There is yet another type of wildflower starting to produce blooms.

The slue is more of an algae soup right now, chock-full of vibrant green strands of algae. Along the bank I saw some creature has made a hole in the hillside. I wonder what it could be?

It‘s pretty round – suppose it’s a miniature Hobbit hole?

Snow!

It’s snowing here for only the second time this year. Now everyone north of the Mason-Dixon line, don’t be laughing about how excited people in the south get over such a little dab of snow!

When I went out to do chores this morning, the first thing I saw was Toby cavorting around with snow dusting his back.

A couple of the peahens were out and had even more snow on their backs.

After I finished taking care of the critters, I walked down into the woods. There was snow dusting all the leaves on the ground, and some sticking to the trees. I took a picture of the slue on one side on our property.

I  didn’t see any owls or deer today. They probably had the good sense to stay tucked inside some sort of shelter.

My quince bush has frozen blossoms. Right now the iced blossoms look rather pretty, but I’m sure when it warms up they’ll all turn brown and die.

 Back up near the house, the birds were busy at the feeders and birdbath. We always have several cardinals and woodpeckers dining at our buffet.

They take turns at the feeders, and sit on the fence posts patiently waiting their turn.

You can see what blustery weather we’re having by the way the feathers of this lady Cardinal are all ruffled up. She even tucked one of her feet up in her feathers to stay warm.

We won’t get any accumulation worth mentioning from this morning’s snowfall, but it was still fun to see some snow for a change!