Life With The Crew

Capturing the Light

Today started off gray and humid - not very October like.  It's been rather warm this week, up into the 60's.  I suppose it is nice that the cold weather hasn't set in for good yet, but it is odd to have a frost, but then I'm still picking red raspberries.  The leaf show this year has been amazing here in Pennsylvania and I am thankful every day that I live in such a beautiful state.  I think I'd get rather depressed in a place with no trees or trees that stayed green all the time.  They say variety is the spice of life (at least in some things - my morning raw milk maple latte does not vary.)  And really, the cycle of the seasons is a constant (at least for now...)

Here are a couple backyard photos from a golden afternoon in late October.  Trying to capture the light, to store it and dole it out a little each day throughout the coming months.

However, I'm not too melancholy about it because I actually love the cozy season of Winter.  Though sunflowers are nice too.

 

Bad Day to be a Duck

We woke to an icy world today.  The frigid temps had warmed enough overnight for some of the snow to melt and then the rains came and everything was enrobed in ice.  Very pretty; pretty deadly.  Any surface that had partially melted is now super slick ice.  The ducks are NOT happy.  I spread wood shavings in their yard, but if they pick up too much speed, they slip and slide on their amply padded chests.  They could stay in their dry hut, but apparently there are still too many things to see and do on a day like this.  Gotta love their determination.

On the birding front, the feeder and suet block have been receiving a lot of action during these cold days.  If you're interested, this is a list of the birds that we have seen since Jan 1.  If not stated otherwise, they were sighted in our backyard in the suburbs.  Chickadee, Tufted Titmouse, Cardinal (M&F), Mourning Dove pair, White Breasted Nuthatch, Downy Woodpecker, House Sparrow, White Throated Sparrow, Junco, American Robin, Starling, Cedar Waxwing, Carolina Wren, Blue Jay, Goldfinch, Red-Tailed Hawk, Tundra Swan (adult and juvenile at local wetlands), Coopers or Sharp Shinned Hawk (difficult to tell apart), Turkey Vulture, Pigeons (farmland), Mallard, Kestrel (on telephone wire near farmland).

 

Puttering with Ducks

We had a bit of snow this afternoon.  Nothing dramatic, just enough for looking pretty.  I haven't puttered with my camera outside for a while, so I took a break from my knitting and headed out to join the ducks.  It was just enough snow to hide their poop!

And if looking at these snowy scenes makes you a bit chilly, you might want to stop by my Etsy shop.  I'm running a 30% off sale on all wool items until tomorrow!

Hello Autumn

Some scenes from the last week of September.  I cleaned out the garden and was pleasantly surprised to see that we have 5 medium size pumpkins that should ripen nicely by the big day in October.  My last ditch sunflower seeds planted in July came to fruition and are smiling sunnily.  I have white and deep purple dahlias that are just coming into their prime and the cosmos and zinnias are so cheerful in the late afternoon sun.  We are getting a handful of red raspberries each day and we harvested our first ever batch of sweet potatoes and have enough for three loaves of quick bread.  Not a bumper crop, but a good start.  My husband surprised us with four 5-gallon buckets of apples that he foraged from trees around town.  They don't look like much and most people would pass them by as wormy old things, but they were nearly perfect inside and made great cider!

My knitting has been a bit slow, but I did take new videos and photos of the items in my shop.  Check them out if you haven't stopped by lately!  We're getting into the 40's here at night, so it is officially SHAWL SEASON!  And it is always baby blanket season for someone!  If anyone is in the market for a gender neutral baby gift, this turquoise blanket is a beautiful color!

And here is a photo of the latest addition to our family (the horse, not the monster beside me).

This Shaya, the Haflinger.  She came from Gentle Giants Draft Horse Rescue in Maryland.  She is a pretty little lady with a quick step who will keep me on my toes. (My other little lady is wearing a mask because she was in a foul grumpy mood - too much traveling doesn't do a child good.)  My old Thoroughbred, Frank, is doing great for being almost 32 years old, but his current speed of choice is only the walk and I respect that.

Hope your last days of September go out with a splash of Autumnal color!

Busy As a Bee

If anyone is still out there reading this, "HELLO!"  The summer has flown by and now we're looking towards Fall.  Today is a rainy day, overcast with periods of weak light, and just the kind of morning that I like for puttering in the garden with my camera.  I can't actually DO anything in the yard because everything is too wet, so I don't have to feel guilty about just puttering.  One of the changes that occurred this summer was that my husband brought me into the age of Smart phones, and so I have been using that to take pictures instead of my trusty digital camera.  However, this morning was a camera morning, not a phone morning, so here are some photos.  Most of the bees were still motionless, hiding under leaves and waiting to dry off so they could start their day.

And what is the news from the last two months?  Well, let's just say we spend a lot of time smelling horse-y.  Our trusty steeds are going steady - Kermit has been to several horse shows and Frank is holding strong at 31 with trail rides and occasional jumping sessions.  We currently have two dogs and Flora the Angora in the house.  Five chickens and three ducks in the yard - all well fattened on bird seed fed by the not so little babe.  My garden is heavy on native pollinator friendly plants, so it is blooming at this time of the year with coneflowers, Joe Pye Weed, Obedient Plant, Butterfly Bush, various Rudbeckias, along with zinnias, cosmos, and dahlias.  Since pollinators are so important and so threatened, I want to pack the yard with as many native blooming plants as possible.  I just bought two New England asters and the rabbits promptly had a feast - not quite the wildlife I was trying to attract with them!

I hope you are doing well and have been having some fun!  

A White April

There seems to be so many trees in bloom at the moment with white blossoms - one of them being this cherry in my backyard.  Love it!  It was at its peak the past couple days and now it is "snowing" in the yard.  

The other color of the month is green of course - green everywhere!  I have been puttering in the garden in between riding at the barn, homeschooling time, and adventures to see what kinds of birds and amphibians we can find in the woods around us.  After being in our home for 15 years, I have reached a point where the perennials are doing their thing and I don't have much to do except keeping on top of the weeds.  The yard could always use some updated landscaping, but the horse and pony fund is more important at the moment.  

Speaking of green, I still have this lovely "Sprout" green shawl for sale in my Etsy shop.

And Then There's Green!

This week has definitely felt Spring-y!  Lots of yard work was done to spruce up our Airbnbs, some pansies were bought for a bit of color, and yesterday I decided to clean up my main flower bed even though my back wanted a rest.  Glad I did, because last night we had an unexpected thunderstorm and now this morning the sun is shining bright and illuminating all of the florescent green tips.  The garlic is growing, the Hellebores are pink and blooming, and the new garlic chives are telling me its time to cut down the old stalks.  I think the seed heads are so beautiful, so I leave them up all winter.  

In the woods this week, we saw a Mourning Clock butterfly - that was a first for us!  We heard Spring Peepers and Wood frogs and spotted the first Wood frog eggs.  We have been seeing muskrats, a Great Blue heron, Mallards, Canada Geese, and Wood ducks at a marshy wetland on the way to the barn.  It is always exciting to see the male Wood ducks with their rainbow of colors.

And in our own yard, the chickens have taken over.  With the loss of our prey-driven Corgi, Ruby, over the winter, we now only have Lola, the 16 year old Corgi who has always been more interested in the chicken poop, than the chicken, and Wallace, our Romanian rescue who isn't prey driven either.  Last year, one of our chickens was being picked on by the other two and so we had to segregate her in chicken isolation.  After her head feathers grew back (her supposed friends had pecked her head until it bled), she still chose to be the loner and she started hopping the fence.  Even though Ruby was old and slower, she still would go after the chicken, so we didn't encourage the chicken's free roaming ways.  During the snowy winter, she kept close to the coop, but just in the past two weeks, she started hopping the fence again - that whole grass is greener thing.  Well, then we noticed one day that there were two chickens in the yard for short periods of time.  Then this week, we decided, "Why not?"  It is pretty fun to see them in the yard - we'll be reading on the sofa and all of a sudden this black streak will shoot across the yard or approach the back door.  We do get regular visits from a Cooper's hawk in our yard, but these ladies are big enough to be left alone.  And the Red-tailed hawks in our neighborhood have never shown interest in our chickens.  We still have two bantams that are locked up in an Eglu because they would definitely make a tasty hawk lunch!

I'll leave you with a little more green.  This small baby blanket/play mat was knit with 100% wool in "Grass" green.  Happy Spring!

End of August in the Garden

Our backyard isn't as lush as it normally is, since we haven't had rain for literally weeks (until yesterday!)  But we still have some good things going on.  We planted grapevines several years ago, not with any grand intentions, just because it seemed to be the "homesteading" thing to do.  Well, this year it paid off in the form of a much enjoyed cup of homemade grape juice for the little babe.  The grapevines are in "her" garden area.  Last year the grapes didn't do much, but this year we've noticed the chipmunks and catbirds going to town.  I though she probably had enough to make grape juice, so we gave it a try.  Picked, washed, mashed, simmered, strained, and enjoyed!

Last year I saved the seeds from my poppy flowers and we had enough for several different patches.  It looks like next year, we'll have even more!  I love the unique shape and texture of the seed pods.  Crushing them to get the seeds was such a tactile experience!

I have a couple of lovely pale orange squash.  The full name is Galeux D'Eysines.  They get brown warty spots on them (again, a tactile thing!) and are supposedly very yummy in soups or baking.  I just like how they look!  The little babe was worried about the spots, but I told her that's just how they're supposed to be.  

The gardening season is coming into full swing for some crops and winding down for others.  I have already planted my fall carrots and lettuce.  The tomatoes are continuing and peppers are just changing color.  My zucchini plant currently has 3 fruits about to pick - it really only started when I got back from vacation and hit the watering hard.  And I have sunflowers!!  A small patch, about 12 plants, but that is more than last year, so hip hip hooray!  I managed to outsmart the chipmunks.  I started the seeds in small pots in a "cold frame" - a large Tupperware bin covered by an old window, then just window screen.  Then when I transplanted them, I took plastic nursery pots, turned them upside down (so wide end was on the ground), and cut a hole in the bottom.  This collar apparently was too much work for the chipmunks.  I learn something new every year!

Backyard Lessons

I have always loved our backyard.  One of the main reasons why we bought our house was for the property - 1/2 an acre in the suburbs with mature landscaping, fruit trees, in a semi-private setting - it sounded like a place that we could experiment with and make our own.  Fifteen years later, we have now had chickens for over a decade (and ducks at several points of time), the fruit trees are dying and having to be replaced, there are definitely more flowers, and the pines, spruces, aspens, and cherries have only grown taller.  We have seen the following wildlife in our yard just in the past week:  Red-tailed hawks, a Pileated woodpecker, Downy woodpecker, and Hairy woodpecker, two Ruby-throated hummingbirds (can't tell if they are a pair), Robins, Goldfinches, Blue Jays, House Sparrows, Mourning Doves, Carolina Wrens, male and female Cardinals, Eastern Gray squirrels, Easter Cottontail, American toads, Monarchs, Yellow Easter Swallowtail, Black Swallowtail, chipmunks, and numerous pollinators including Honeybees, Common Eastern bumblebees, and Bald Faced hornets.  

Our outdoor math lesson was put on hold when a toad was found in the garden.  We have been reading Jane Goodall's memoir, My Life With the Chimpanzees, and I figured that nature observation was definitely a worthy activity.  So for the next hour, my daughter sat on the ground, content as can be, to be hanging out with a toad.  Some might claim too much COVID isolation, but I see it as a parenting high point.  No screen stimulation was needed, no prompting by a parent, nothing but fascination and curiosity.  

This morning she found the first large spider web of the season - it is a sign of the approaching cooler weather.  I could title this image something like "Child of Wonder" or "Childhood Awe", but the real title should be "Seconds Before the Small Red Spider Menacingly Thrust Out His Front Legs and Young Child and the Mother-Photographer Jumped Back in Fright."

Keep your eyes open and notice the small wonders around you.  They are there even if we don't notice.

 

 

Poppy Time!

These are self seeded poppies in my garden.  I also have two other poppy patches that I planted from saved seed.  I don't know their names; I just scatter and hope something takes!  They are so short lived (one to two days!), but they are fascinating flowers.

I wanted to make a quick shout-out thank you to "Jane", who pointed me in the right direction about the mystery flower in my last post.  I looked it up and decided it is a Verbascum blattoria or Moth Mullein.  I have never heard of the plant or seen it before, so thank you Jane!