Playing Catch-up: notes on life here and on the mountain

July 11, 201425 Comments

Spring came to the Mountain Farmlet and left.

Summer brought tall grass,

: You can’t tell it, but the grass is almost 4 feet tall in some places

: Trees along the back: gone (this is where you can now see straight through the length of the property.

: I mowed all around the house and the outbuildings

: And lastly I mowed a wide path to the woodland trail.

Insects,

: A Button bush plays host to butterflies…

: Carpenter bees and…

: A blueberry colored Damselfly with jewel green eyes!!

Assorted vining summer flowers,

: Raindrops on wild grapes

: two inch orange tubes of Trumpet creeper (aka: Campsis radicans)

: that open to herald in the nectar lovers

: Bignona: gone

*It may be a Crossvine (aka: Cross-Vine, Trumpet Flower (Bignonia capreolata)) LOOK HERE

mushrooms,

: A chewed red mushroom,

: another golden variety, also chewed,

: and a trail of whites growing under the oaks in the leaves and moss

and too much heat.

While I mowed the day away, Bob kept busy with string trimming, and push mowering the areas I can’t get into with the riding mower. When he was done, he took a rest, ate lunch, and then continued work on our new compost station!

NOTE TO SELF: build a wire cover for the beginning bin if we intend to continue to using if for kitchen scraps! The skunks paid it a visit after the last dump. Or, maybe we should start a wormery?

~*~*~*~

Our collective health has taken a blow, and consequently so has our bank account. Not to whine, well OK, I am going to whine: $800.00 for Bob to take an ambulance ride? And of course our new insurance did not cover it! RIDICULOUS! (I want to tell you more about this, but not now.)

All this has us just keeping up with weed abatement and clearing the trail into the woods. Mowing, and by that I mean just around the house, pond and outbuildings, and the paths through to the tall grass to the trail, etc. takes me *6 to 7 hours.

It is hard work and the pastures would be better tended by a flock of goats and my geese, but we are in a holding pattern while we catch up from medical bills.

Fall and Winter will find us back at work on the inside of the little farmhouse. In the meantime we continue to peel away the layers of wallpaper and paneling to prepare for new joists, plumbing , electrical, closing up the walls, and painting.

All things in good time, eh?

*RE: Hours of lawn mowing – Follow this link to a humorous but serious treatise shared on Ruth’s Chickens which contemplates the state of lawns and nature: HERE!

Word of the day: tenacious

June 4, 2013June 4, 201312 Comments

Why is the whole lawn mowed except for that little island out there?

I will tell you.

Today I mowed the wild garden down because we plan to sell the house, and no matter how much I like it, to most people it just looks like a lotta weeds.

Needs must…

However, there was a good reason for leaving that one spot unmowed.

Look!

You can see from the other picture that I had mowed right up to the edge of this stand of Goldenrod. She never moved, nor did she even appear to flinch, and I call that

Tenacious

What’a Weechoo Mama!

~*~*~*~

NOTE: She is sitting on roughly 30 eggs. (It seems that they all do this, though I have found no explanation for their egg hording behavior.) I know they won’t all hatch, but hope that at least a few will make it. The days to hatch for Guinea Fowl eggs is 26 to 28 days. I estimate she has been at it for a week which means that she sat it out in the torrential rains this past week, and will have to sit it out for any further rains we may get. So where was the Weechoo Papa while all this mowing was going on? Hiding in the neighbors pasture!

I told him he was a big chicken!

~*~

Definitions:

Merriam Webster defines tenacious as: persistent in maintaining, adhering to, or seeking something valued or desired.

Weechoo : My pet name for my Guinea foul. It is my best attempt at the sound they make when they communicate, to me and each other, here on the Farmlet. 😉

And finally, I recommend this read from The Natural Poultry Farming Guide

This and That

June 3, 201343 Comments

Well, Friday was the big day!

We signed our paperwork and paid for the Mountain Farmlet. We were so excited that we wore ourselves out with it all. We had planned to take ourselves out to dinner, but then didn’t have the energy to go! But dinner at home was good. 😉

Tucker is getting better! It is painfully slow progress, but we don’t have to let him out every hour on the hour now. In fact, we found out on Friday that he can hold it for over three hours now, and that is a milestone. However, we will be waiting a lot longer for his fur to grow back. 😦

Now begins the hopefully not too long process of prepping this house and selling it. We considered renting, but in the end we decided we just don’t want the hassle that goes along with being rental owners.

ANYBODY WANT TO BUY A NICE FARMLET IN HAZEL GREEN?

As for the Mountain Farmlet, well we still have one more week to go. The Octogenarian is having her estate sale and then will be moved out by the 10th. I was feeling sad for her to have to go, but then she told us she has plans to go traveling over the next year! I think this is wonderful, and I hope she has a wonderful journey wherever she goes!

In the meantime I have been busy making cuttings, and potting up plants I want to take with me to the Mountain Farmlet. Roses, herbs, bulbs and more. I started the roses by air layering and it is working FAST and FABULOUSLY! I already have big, fat root callouses growing in under all that sphagnum moss and tinfoil! I am taking more than one of each item to ensure that I get at least ONE OF EACH ITEM! 😀

Oh yes, and when I am not puttering and such in the gardens, I have been quietly packing and sorting for the moving sale.