Early May evening on the farm

Getting their last pecks in before heading to the roost.

 75 pounds of foolishness in each one.

Oh Bilbo.  What a pup.

Earl Grey.  Such a calm and dignified roo.

West creek crossing.

Little bird tracks

Big bird tracks.  Probably a heron.

We mowed a path along the creek this year.  I startled a little muskrat right about here.  Such shy little critters.

The sun is already so far north, setting over Dick Olson's farm.

These guys are first out in the morning and last in in the evening.  They spend their days down at the creek and their nights safely in the barn.  It's a good life for a duck.  

In the chicken house...

There are 13 empty nesting boxes and ONE with a hen in it.  This red hen wants to get in the ONE box that is already occupied.  Until the other hen leaves, she's going to sit there with her rear hanging out, waiting for the space.  I hope she doesn't lay her egg right there and let it fall to the ground.  Silly hen.


LATER....I just went out to the chicken house to let the hens out for their evening romp and what did I find on the nesting boxes...?  She really did just lay her egg there!

Chicken in the oven

Yesterday I stopped at the local ag store, Big R, to pick up some animal feed.  While there I saw signs saying all remaining chicks were $1 each.  Regular price for chicks isn't terribly expensive - $2.50 to $4 but gosh, a buck a piece?  Of course I had to get some, nevermind that we already have 10 layers, 11 half-grown layers and 45 meat chicks.  I picked out some golden laced wyandottes that I'd been wishing for.  A few more Americaunas because they lay such beautiful eggs and have such beautiful feathers.  And oh my goodness - they have bantams, too?  We haven't had bantams for a loooong time.  They have so much personality - I'll take five!  I put their little boxes in the back of the car and hurried through my grocery shopping.  

I have heat lamps, chick feeders and waterers set up for the meat chicks we got last week so I put the new chicks out there with them.  Most of them started eating, drinking and scampering around but one little bantam chick just sat there.  I checked on him several times before bed and he hadn't moved.  I figured I'd find a dead little chick on that spot in the morning.  

But this morning he was still alive!  I decided he deserved some TLC so I brought him in the house in his little chick box, gave him feed and some sugar water but how to keep him warm? I didn't have a spare heat lamp so I thought about putting him on a heating pad.  But then I realized that if I put him in the oven with the light on he'd be warm and free from drafts.  He has spent the day in his box in the oven and over the course of the day he's perked up!  He's eating and drinking and his eyes are much brighter.  Anne took him out and held him for a while and by jingle, when we put him back in the oven he was so distressed at being left alone again he started cheeping at the top of his lungs.  He cheeped so loud from inside the closed oven that the dogs in the basement started whining and barking and the cat sat in front of the stove staring at the oven!  Anne ended up holding him for a while while I went out to the chicken house and got another little bantam chick to put in with him for company.  Hopefully by tomorrow they'll be ready to join all the others.  But for tonight, there's definitely chicken in the oven!   Another one of my "bargains" that has turned into an adventure.

Anne thinks we should call him Sweetie Pie since the sugar water did the trick.

Whit has parked himself in front of the oven.  He knows something interesting is in there.

One year after our return to the farm

The wild plum trees produce a lovely fragrance that wafts across the entire farm.

Apple blossoms - not fragrant but beautiful nonetheless.  And the bees like them!

Tomato dreams

Double tulips

Chicken tracks in the mud, dried to fossil hardness

Midwest haute cuisine:  morel mushrooms

A little neighbor tries on my glasses

Trillium

Bluebell woods.  So beautiful, so transient. 

Wild plum tree on the banks of Nettle Creek

Basket, bag or box - he just wants to be IN something!

Spring on the farm - it washes over us like a flood and we're busy trying to absorb it all and keep up with all the arrivals, both animal and vegetable.  Things look very different this spring than they did last spring.  We still have lots of dreams to fulfill and that's what keeps us moving.  

On the banks ... but with eyes to the sky

It's been just over a year since I retired. My team mates at Google gave me a camera that I can use with my telescopes to take pictures of stars. I haven't had much opportunity to use it. Last night a friend came over and helped me to get it focused correctly - something I was having real problems with. The best result of the evening is the photo below. In bottom center you can see the Whirlpool Galaxy. You can see the wiki page on it here.

I was really excited to finally see something like this using that particular camera. I knew it should be possible. Not until my friend Dan helped me figure out what my problem was and got the focus nice and sharp was I able to do it.

Early February on the Farm

Rug hookers here for a morning of handwork, chatting and inspiration.  Warmed by the woodstove, fueled by pots of coffee.  Rughooking is an eminently social hobby.

Orchids thriving in the winter sun on the windowsill.  A breath of loveliness against a snowy backdrop.  Soon there will be tulips outdoors!

Wintery sunrise

Melted cat in front of the woodstove, after playing with wool rug "worms".

Bird-watcher

An old wool skirt, deconstructed and ready to cut into strips for hooking the background of my latest rug hooking project.

Two chickens and a barn.  Lots of background to work here - the wool goes from skirt to dirt!

Chicken pot-pie on a cold winter's evening, compliments of Anne.  Vegetables from last summer's garden make a welcome re-appearance on the table.