Starlings

The big cherry tree is heavy with fruit and it is a big draw in the neighborhood. We have waves of starlings cruising in. They come from the north and from the east in crowds of 100 or more. The top of the tree is 50 feet and out of reach to mere mortals and the fruit ripens there first. It took a week for the starlings to pick it clean and every day they brought more friends. Now they are working the middle where I can reach on the tall ladders. The cherries are ripening all over the tree and we want our share.
I clap my hands when I am picking and 40 starlings burst out of the canopy.
Today we are drinking coffee and eating breakfast. The starlings are working the backyard. They are marching across and probing with their long bills deep in the sod. They are finding Japanese beetle grubs that are emerging right now. That is a fine thing for a wayward bird to do.

I wanna get lost in your Rock and Roll

Day after day i'm more confused
Yet i look for the light through the pouring rain
You know that's a game that i hate to lose
And i'm feelin' the strain, ain't it a shame

Ohh give me the beat boys and free my soul
I wanna get lost in your rock n' roll
And drift away
Ohh give me the beat boys and free my soul
I wanna get lost in your rock n' roll
And drift away

Beginning to think that i'm wasting time
I dont understand the things i do
The world outside look so unkind
And i'm countin' on you, to carry me through

Ohh give me the beat boys and free my soul
I wanna get lost in your rock n' roll
And drift away
Yeah, give me the beat boy and free my soul
I wanna get lost in your rock n' roll
And drift away

And when my mind is free
You know a melody can move me
And when im feelin' blue
The guitars comin' through and soothe me
Thanks for the joy that you've given me
I want you to know i believe in your song
Rhythm and rhyme and harmony
You help me along, makin me strong

Ohh give me the beat boys and free my soul
I wanna get lost in your rock n' roll
And drift away
Give me the beat boys and free my soul
I wanna get lost in your rock n' roll
And drift away

Ohhhh give me the beat boys and free my soul
I wanna get lost in your rock n' roll
And drift away
Ohhh, hey hey give me the beat boy and free my soul
I wanna get lost in your rock n' roll
And drift away now now now, wont you take me
Oh wont you take me

Rainy Thoughts and Events

We have succeeded in raising chickens that go broody. Most chickens have been bred to never go broody and raise their own chicks. We bought a little hen, Henny Penny, 4 years ago and she has raised almost all our laying hens. We kept adding her eggs to the nests and this past week we have had 6 hens go broody. But with all good things... We do not have room for 6 broody hens. They need a private place to hatch out the chicks or the other hens will eat the newly hatched (they look like hosed down insects as they hatch out).

We wanted three of the hens to go back to laying eggs. So I put two of them in a cage with a chicken wire floor and nowhere to sit comfortably. Boy, did they complain. Every time I walked by they would start up with the cackle, "Cackle, let me out of here, ya bum... cackle, ya mook, I ain't comfy." After three days, I let them back in the flock. That was today, so we will see if they are ready to go back to laying eggs. The other hen quit on her own after she saw what happened to the other two. Go figure.













Spring flowers are out and Cindy has a bouquet that has knocked our socks off. So we are walking around barefoot these days.

We have two bee hives now and are hoping for our own honey this summer. The second hive arrived as a "nuke", a nucleus of a hive made up of 3 frames with bees and larva and one frame of honey. There is a queen, too. There are 10 frames in this hive body, so they have lots of work to do to fill the 6 empty frames, as well as, draw out comb. I will add a super (the thinner box) in a week or so.







Our home in the fog. We have a shade cover on the greenhouse and it is pulled back for cloudy weather.





















The Circle Garden is blooming with lots of pinks (dianthus). Cindy has started flats of them form seed and they are blooming beautifully.











We have been trying to graft some apples. This is a seedling apple we did not mow down in the yard. Patsy Riccotelli, a neighbor, came over and grafted a summer yellow apple for apple sauce. It took! I have 10 root stocks for apples planted in the orchard and next spring we will graft some heirloom apples I have found at the old Durrett farm. We will be making cider every year.
I hope everything grows well for you.

Enough Rain for Rice

We got 3 1/2 inches of rain last evening. It flooded our gardens, filled the paths, ran down the driveway and clogged the culverts on the road. We looked at the potatoes and it looked like a rice paddy. By morning it was gone.

This a small chicken tractor we use for the setting hens. They have a small nest box in the corner and a little door to let them out to graze. Setting hens need to be separated from the flock. Other hens will lay eggs on a setting hen to get their eggs hatched but since eggs take 21 days to hatch eggs added later will not make it. Also, newly hatched chicks are too very vulnerable and adult hens would quickly dispatch the new borns. This cage, the chicken tractor, allows the chicks to be safe and have fresh grass and bugs to eat as well as the chicken food.

Our first day at the Elkins Farmers Market. It was a nice cool morning and we had a fair sale but needed more customers. We are having a news reporter come out to the farm today to take pictures and write a story about the farmers market.

Our self portrait on a sunny afternoon. May your afternoons be sunny, too.

Warming up to May

After a disastrous freeze on May 18, we have planted the tomatoes out once again. They wilted in the 80 degree heat no matter how I watered. Scott called and said he got 1 1/2 inches of rain in 40 minutes and we got more hot sun on Saturday. Monday afternoon we started to get rain. I was watering the rhubarb. I stood under a tree for a few minutes 'til Cindy called, "Come in out of the rain." (probably saying, "you idiot," under her breath!) We got at elast 3/4 inches of rain over the afternoon and expect the corn and beans will sprout now.

We sat in the greenhouse and listened to the rain falling on glazing while we planned the plantings coming up. With the door opened to the newly mowed blueberry field and the flowers blooming in front, it was beautiful.

The peeps are now 4 weeks old and in the two chicken tractors that are being pulled across the orchard. They are fertilizing the apple trees currently. We will be moving them into the fallow garden spot later to fertilize it for next year. The golden polish chicks are the funniest looking things with a bald spot in the middle of a floppy mop top. At night they all crowd to the side closest to the other tractor and peep their goodnights to the friends 3 feet away in the other one. Chicken tractors are 5 by 10 feet cages without bottoms that we drag along twice a day through the closely mowed orchard. We hang a waterer and a feeder from the top cross bars. The chicks learn to march forward when we pull them in about 3 days. The first couple of times we have to have one of us behind the tractor and chase them forward or they get caught under the trailing edge.

We are about to put in pumpkins, half runner beans and more sweet corn. We have the garden tilled but it is too wet to walk in today.

I have a few jobs ready to start after school is out. A stone patio, side the root cellar shed, roof a small garden shed and install 500 feet of fence. I can't wait to begin.

I hope rain falls at night for you and the days are brilliant.

Rocks in the Potatoes and Other Stories

I hoed the potatoes and what did I find, but a grand old rock and another behind.

A rock that could easily stub a toe, had it not been buried far below.

I hoed the dirt into long long rows and and removed any rock bigger than my nose.

I know what you say when you see my face; that nose covers acres is the case.

Well, that rock below is larger than large, ok, you could say it is less than a barge.

But its got to move it has got to go. (I don't think it will move with the hoe).

So I go get my tractor and one long thick chain, and I dig with a shovel and think with a brain.

A tunnel would do it, a tunnel indeed. That's the only thing that will get it freed.

I dig with a vengeance and throw dirt to the wind, I dig and dig until the rock's unpinned.

The chain goes round and round the rock, I hope a pull will get it unstuck.

I start the engine, the engine goes putt. It turns over once and then goes putt, putt.

The chain it gets tighter, the wheels dig in, dirt flies in the air as the earth gives in.

The rock is a big one with a groan and a shout, the earth all a tremble, the rock it pops out.

We should be happy, we should celebrate, but under the big one another awaits.

The garage is keeping the tomatoes warm at night. We move them in and out each evening and morning.
Baxter, the circus dog, is keeping guard over all the plants. He has a bunch of tricks to entertain you. He spins if you circle your hand. Sits if you raise your hand, lays down if you push your hand to the floor. He will rollover if you turn your hand in a rolling motion. His surprising trick is you can ask him to sneeze and he does! What-a-dog.

Our neighbor, John, comes over to see if we lost any tomatoes to the frost and give me a bit of advice, "pick up some rocks."

Update on the Frost

It must have been colder than 34 degrees last night. The peppers, tomatoes and potatoes were all damaged underneath their covers. The potatoes had the least damage, the peppers the most. The tomatoes will lose their top couple of inches. I don't think the peppers will recover. I forgot to cover the basil so it is history. We have replacements. I also forgot they dahlias, but they will just send up more foliage. The flowering tobacco took it pretty hard, as did the ageratum. The rudbeckias are fine and I think the lobelia is too.