Christmas day 2012 we seem to be still here or at least parts of us.

We have had a light frost already. The maples are starting to turn, leaves falling, bees buzzing on the last of the fall asters and golden rod. Goldfinches are working hard on seed pods of coneflower and heavy hanging sunflower heads. It’s sweater weather again and the dastardly bane of existence those loathsome ticks are making their appearance, hungry for blood before the ground freezes.

Harvesting carrots, potatoes, cabbage, beans, tomatoes, squash, etc. Saving seeds from sunflowers, soybeans, lettuce, broccoli, tomatoes, radish and perhaps some things not coming to mind. Making sauce and juice and pickling tomatoes; freezing beans and corn. Pictures are of the rich colors, note the black knight carrot. We didn’t have a great harvest of that particular carrot type, sadly. Some carrots missed from last year are going to supply us some seed this year.

Seeds Unsown Needed For a Long Owl fraught Winter’s Eating, Rally the Songbirds

New kids on the (chopping) block - 31 broilers, Cornish Rock giants (and a new little pup to keep Fiona company). So far so good except for a curious skunk on several nights. We have never yet lost a chicken to predators, the dogs definitely can take the credit for that. We did lose 2 ducks though one time to the neighbor’s dog, that dog wasn’t long for this earth as he got hit on the road not long after his crime. The broilers are eating machines for sure and have heard that they can suffer from heart attacks from overeating, we have not experienced this..knock on wood.

Oops- kittens, well all we have to say is that they’re a lot of great fun, it’s an experience that is pert near all joy.

Passing through a portal to home and a restful evening...

We have some new laying hens this year. The coloring of the Golden-laced Wyandotte is so striking and lovely. It’s not quite a new breed for us as we do have older Silver-laced Wyandottes. The new breed is the Black Astrolorp. Read somewhere that the Astrolorps are not heavy scratchers so we thought that they might make a good free range bird. An Astrolorp set world records for egg laying, one hen laying 364 eggs in a year! Purportedly, they are great brooders and are friendly and calm. The golden laced Wyandotte also have a reputation as being a docile bird. The colorings of the two breeds coordinate so well together, with the Astolorp being jet black with black feet and beak and the Wyanadotte as you see pictured.

Sunset news

One of the greatest joys and lucks we have on the farm is a clear view to the west. We are so thankful to have this never ending source of beauty and wonder in the form of sunsets. In our family, early on, one of the young ones called the unobstructed view "the sunset news." Only from the mouth of babes. So now we can often report that the sunset news is... beautiful. This is an older picture from when Finnegan was still alive- there have been countless glorious sunsets since but this is still one of my favorite pictures. The thought that this view could easily be obstructed by intensive industrial development is a sad and scary one.

Another beautiful nest in the berries, this one has a cowbird egg. The Brown-headed Cowbird is a brood parasite,and does not build their own nest, interestingly there are 220 different birds that they utilize to raise their young. They only lay one egg per nest but will lay up to 40 eggs a year. They have been known to chase the nest's egglayer off her nest to lay the egg and they usually pick species that have smaller eggs! Some of the bird hosts recognize the egg as unwelcome and will get rid of it or abandon the nest, but many do not and raise the baby cowbird as their own; this can sometimes be detrimental to the host's own fledgelings. Only 3 percent of cowbirds are fledged- successfully. Curious. I wonder if the diet for the young cowbird is of no consequence or are all baby birds fed an identical diet. Update.. at least two have fledged from the nest, just got a quick look so as not to disturb, not sure if one was the cowbird. By the way.. have learned that the chipping sparrow nest (which this was) is the most frequently parasitized nest.

We usually leave a wide berth around a bush that we know has a bird nest in it until the birds have fledged, but this nest seems to have been abandoned long before this picture for some reason. The nest had all manner of insects in it it and litter such as green berries that had fallen in. There is a Peterson field guide to bird nests don’t you know, but we were unable to identify, positively, the eggs in this nest It is only about 4-6 inches off the ground, and is lined with pine needles There are a few pines on the farm but not real close to the berries. I thought it looked very similar to the Rose- breasted Grosbeak, but the nest is too low to the ground. I even have a hard time trying to discern whether the eggs are splashed, blotched, dotted, spotted, overlaid or wreathed! There is a chance that they are Rufous- sided Towhee eggs, but these eggs look more heavily marked, and Dark-eyed Junco is a possibility but their nests are usually on the ground and the description does not mention pine needles in the nest. Oh well. We can usually identify the eggs by the panicked parent birds that get in a tizzy when you get too close. It will remain a mystery as to what kind of beautiful eggs these are and what happened to the parents.

Spending lots of time in the berries, weeding, mulching and fertilizing, scything and mowing, fretting and planning, all under the watchful eye of the seemingly lonely, lovely Fiona.

The Asian dogwood Cornus Kousa “Satomi” tis billed as pink but in reality, on our tree, it’s speckled dark pink on the sunny side of the tree and barely pink on the shady side. It blooms much later than the native dogwood, which is very nice. The fall fruit is edible, subtlety sweet and is loved by birds. I’ve wondered about mixing them with other fruit to preserve and I’ve read that you can make wine out of the fruit. Is there anything you can’t make wine out of? We just enjoy a few of them fresh though, competing with the birds for a week or so.

Got snow?

On April 24th we had an unusual heavy snow, unusual in that everything was in flower because of the unusually warm spring. We had to brush the snow off the bushes so no branches would be broken. the contrast was quite beautiful,

Oh boy, some of us were in seventh heaven with having 150 varieties of heirloom apple scion wood to choose from at this grafting workshop. Some were very rare and impossible to find varieties and some were new varieties. So, all participants donated scion wood which was labeled and displayed then grafting experts disbursed among the tables to share their expertise. The rootstock was available for a small charge. There was great camaraderie who shared a passion for all things apple. We picked up a “jelly flower” but have not been able to find any description of it except for a mention here. If you have knowledge of this apple variety will you let us know?

Heard the woodcock peenting the last few evenings. The elusive bird, if you don’t know already, has a rather unusual way of attracting a mate. He flies slowly upwards 300ft in a spiral then free falls to the ground producing a sound with his wings. They do this at dusk and it’s usually just light enough to watch. This usually happens in March around our neck of the woods.
We came across their eggs one year, a small clutch on the ground next to the area we call “the little woods” not far from the area where they are peenting now.
painting by Archibald Thorburn 1899.

March 7, daffodils up a good bit, pussy willows out, a day that portends green, rebirth and renewal.

End of Jan and have only had a few short days of real winter weather, not complaining but one does wonder whether it’s not a symptom of climate change. Tree and seed catalogs have all arrived with the tempting new for 2012 pics. I may have to try some of those yellow coneflowers and is there room for another apple tree?

See what you can harvest in the middle of January?