Thursday, March 9, 2017

Life on the Farm from the last post to yesterday.

Life on the farm goes on.....

The skunks have once again decided that under our kitchen (the oldest part of the very old farmhouse) is the place to den up to have their babies. This happened a few years ago and I thought I had poured enough cement to stop them entering. Not so! A week or so ago they were back, we think three different ones from the trail cam photos. The house reeked each morning. I burned all the candles and sprayed air fresheners daily. We would block the hole....next morning find another one near the run.
Finally we thought they had all left by checking the trail cam photos so I put down some heavy metal grille over the area. Next morning found they had moved the entrance just to the edge of the grill. Finally place two pieces of welded wire down and fastened it with many  landscape staples. So far, that has worked. We still have the camera set up and see that they are still checking almost nightly to see if they figure it out.

Saw some other interesting critters too; an armadillo, a possum and of course the roaming cats.

We bought a new camera and it takes fantastic pictures. I plan to place it to watch the birds of a day eating from the spilled seeds under the feeders.




Max is still taking care of his cows daily. I am so happy we bought him the farm truck that he feeds hay with; no more sitting exposed on the tractor in all kinds of weather to feed. Makes you wonder why we did without it for so long. I guess we are slow learners.

We put my mower in the shop last week and hope to get it back soon. It hadn't been serviced in a couple of years and had some mechanical problems too. I have decided to just keep repairing it. I worry that a new one would just be new trouble and I am so used to the Gravely.

Henbit is back along with cheatgrass (bromus tectorum). Both seem to thrive no matter the weather. I could actually mow now if I had the mower back.

Gardening

February 23 I planted seeds of broccoli, a new variety that is not a hybrid, German chamomile, Napa cabbage, Pearly Everlasting, Rabbit tobacco and wild bergamot.

The broccoli, chamomile, pearly everlasting and rabbit tobacco are already up. The others no sign yet, but it is early. Note: now, 3/9 one native bergamot is up, Napa doesn't look promising.  I have  enough seeds to try direct sowing of it

I need to check seeds for others that need to be planted.  Checked yesterday morning (3/8/17) and planted three varieties of heirloom petunias.

I have several daffodils in full bloom, and sparse blooms on my always sparse blooming forsythias, the crabapple is near ready to bloom, trees are showing green tips, my new little apricot bloomed a few blooms a week ago. I thought I had it where the sun wouldn't hit it until later in the day....didn't work.

When it isn't s windy, I will start my early morning walkabouts. Well, changed my mind and went outside and it wasn't too bad, 48° but windy.

Walkabout Photos:

As usual I ran into  a wall trying to  do pictures....will try to do better at some point.

Update:  March 9, 

Planted 3 varieties of petunias under lights now.

Cheated and made a very small cheese Danish...no icing.

The mower was ready! Max hooked up the trailer and off to  Bolivar.  I hope to do some mowing and trimming today.

This will be our last warm day.  A frigid blast is sailing down from Canada Saturday and we will have a hard freeze.  Goodby peaches and apricots!  Such is life.

All for now.
 I finally got it!  This is what we interpreted as two skunks....hole is now fixed and they seem to have left us.  Thanks to all the powers above!
 This is about all I am baking (except for the one slip with the Danish) these days.  This is our daily bread: Honey, Oat Bran and wholewheat.


 These are the girls which have been laying for about a month now.  We are getting between 6 and 7 eggs daily.  They never truly molted,  but did almost stop  laying so that we bought eggs from the store a few times.

This was our other surprise night visitor, an armadillo.

12 comments:

  1. Dear Glenda ~ So wonderful to see this post from you. I have missed news of your farm life.

    P U skunks. You sure have some activity at night don't you? We've got raccoons and possums, and rats too no doubt, plus felines that roam the neighborhood.

    Your chickens are so healthy and pretty. How wonderful to get fresh eggs from them.

    Your bread looks wonderful.

    Have a great weekend ~ Love & hugs ~ FlowerLady

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    1. Thanks for remembering me. We have a new varmint.....waiting to bring the camera in to see what it is....very small new hold near the foundation where the grating doesn't quite meet the wall.

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  2. I'm happy to see a post from you, too.

    Oh, the skunk problem! Glad it seems you've finally won out over the skunks. Basically shy little creatures, and kind of pretty if you can think of them that way, but the havoc they can cause!

    You have a Gravely?? My husband is madly in love with Gravelys. He went in with his father back in the late 50s to buy the first one. Since then, he buys out-of-commission ones or old ones nobody wants and fixes them up. He likes to keep a different implement on each one so he doesn't have to switch them all the time. Gravelys are a disease with him!

    Bummer about your fruit tree buds getting nipped. I'm realizing more and more that is a real problem for you folks in the "south."

    Your bread always looks so very delicious. I got two loaves of rye baked yesterday. Hubby is a Bohemian and loves his rye bread!

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    1. Tell your husband I have a Gravely ZT1740. He must have much larger machines. I mowed yesterday and it ran like a top! The cold front has arrived!

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  4. Hope you are successful with skunks. I had them under the 3-season porch in 2007. I smoked them out, which was stinky, then laid chicken wire 36 inch width around the perimeter and weighted with stones. They haven't come back. Phil/Minnesota

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    1. I laid down several layers of various things, metal grate, welded wire (two layers) and used long staple to tie it to the ground. Yesterday I noticed a new hole down under the old foundation where the heavy grate didn't meet the wall close enough. I rammed a piece of oak firewood in it and we reset the game camera. Be interesting to see what we have now.....no skunk odor so far.

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  5. Glenda,

    I so feel for you and those darn skunks. We have skunk living in the wooded area between our home and a neighbors. We always know when someone has decided to sneak through the woods at night, the skunk usually spray them...LOL!!!! One night I woke to the strong smell of skunk coming in the a/c vents.
    Glad you resolved your skunk issue. We're looking forward to moving to our new home out on 20 acres. I'm hoping there's no issues with skunks there. We need to set out the game cams to see what's around there on the property.

    Having a vehicle to help with feeding the cattle is a real good thing.

    Your daffodils are gorgeous!!! My clematis are growing like crazy in the pots, I need to make sure to take them with us when we leave.

    Yum....your bread always looks wonderful.......

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  6. Sandy I start my clematis in pots too. I read somewhere this was a good idea since they are so small they are easily overlooked if put directly into the ground.

    Happy to hear you have your place in the country, hopefully with no varmints at all!

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  7. Yep, we have skunks out here too! So far they are content to stay out on the prairie. But they perfume the morning air often. We have not had our annual rat / mice infestation, mostly because we haven't had fire out here. Hope I didn't jinx it by saying so. The worst thing to have is a raccoon. They can get into anything.

    I have a week before I go in for shoulder surgery to get the things I grew under lights out into the garden. I won't be surprised to see the garden go to weeds this year. I have a rotator cuff tear that is very painful and it will be repaired in out-patient surgery in Tulsa by a doctor that I trust not to do me like the guy in Bartlesville did my torn meniscus in my knee that then caused me to have the knee replaced. *sigh*.

    Hopefully we've had our last freezing night, I'm going to try to get things set out before surgery. If it dies, it dies.

    Hugs xoxoxo

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  8. I kept checking for a new post on a daily basis and then somehow forgot to check. So glad to see you back. Love your news about the farm and especially baking ;)

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  9. Hi Glenda, we've had some winter weather return to nip a few flowering trees, but now warmer weather has returned. I'm hoping the redbud trees survived and will flower. Hope you got rid of the pesky skunks. It reminds me of a Gladys Taber book about her life at Stillmeadow where she had a skunk that she would feed and had named Raspberry. I love animals, but I don't think I'd encourage a skunk! :) Enjoyed reading your news from the farm! Have a nice week!

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