Suspended

It is as if we are suspended in a water droplet. We can see the world around us and it is lovely, even in the rain.

However, we can't escape the silken walls of water. Can't garden. Can't hay. It is raining so much the boss can't even get the driveway leveled off so it is not the grand canyon of the east.

Lots of grass out there. I stood at the kitchen sink looking up the hill to see if the bucks are around. Normally we have a doe and fawns hanging around the house, but this year there are two bucks, one large, one small. They are so tame that they came out of the machine shed the other day when the boss went up there after something. A lot of tracks suggest that they spend a bunch of time there.

Anyhow, through the drizzle I saw something out there, but it was just a greyish blur, not the bright russet of the deer or the stark black and white of the cows.

I was pretty sure it was a coyote, and after a quick run for the binoculars that was confirmed.

No wonder the kids' horse, Sunny, had been spooking and hawking around the yard. It was a BIG one! Looked more like a pale German Shepherd than a yote. Its head was almost pure pale tan to right down behind its ears. 

It hung around, right near the cows and the horse, for quite a while before it moseyed away in grass up to its shoulders.

We never lack for wild things....it's like we live in a national park or something only without the rangers.

Last week it was a fox on the lawn. I think I saw a weasel on my walk the other morning. A %$#&&*(^** chipmunk practically sat on my feet on the porch to drink from the tool carrier I keep the young mint plants in on the porch the other day. 

It has eaten all but one of my new hostas, some sunflower plants, and so much bird seed I simply quit feeding.

Dagnabbit.

Anyhow, it is wet, it has been wet, apparently it will be wet.

Yesterday I taught Peggy to say "water", which was pretty cool.

Liz suggest that her next word should be "ark".

Instead I taught her to say "chocolate." Then I sent the boss out to buy us some.

Father's Day

I have been so eager to tell about the Father's Day gifts I did for my dad and the boss, but I had to wait until I gave them to them, so they wouldn't read about them here first.

And yes, I kind of jumped the gun, but sometimes you gotta.

For my own dear dad, who taught me so much and instilled a lifelong love of learning, I made a salad garden.

We bought a huge plastic pot and filled it with nice potting soil. I buried a big handful of Epsom salts and then planted two good-sized tomatoes, one on each side, with a little trellis for them to grow on. Since I accidentally started somewhere in the neighborhood of 150 tomato seedlings and only about a dozen are in the ground so far.......that part wasn't exactly a big sacrifice.

Two sweet basils we started from seed were added, then we sowed the balance to lettuce mix and a few carrots.

Not exactly instant salad, but all things come to those who wait.

For the boss I sent for a subscription to Lancaster Farming, which is a great farm newspaper no matter where you live. His long term subscription was one of the many things that fell under the cost-cutting axe when things got bad in dairying. Fortuitously they sent us a sale flyer just in time for Dad's Day.....

A good newspaper subscription rewards us in so many ways. When Daisy has what one of my favorite authors, JA Jance, (who also has a little Dachsie), calls "deliberates" on the kitchen floor, newspaper comes to the rescue.

And it is handy when starting fires, which when you heat your house and your water with wood can be important. Especially this year, when we still don't have the big front doors opened because it has been so cool and wet. 

But first of course he gets to read it, especially the auction listings. The man loves him a good auction.

Hope they both have a wonderful Sunday.

A Little Damp around the Edges

Too wet to sow, too wet to mow.

Too wet to hoe, too wet to.....do much of anything outdoors.

Can't weed the peas or the beans. Can't really plant out any more tomatoes until the ground is less muddy.

Certainly can't make hay....

However, it is going to be sunny for a while today and full advantage will be taken.

I already showed optimism and put away most of the winter clothes. And found my favorite Hawaiian shirt and my other tan shorts, which were among the missing.

Yay! Here's hoping it will dry off enough to get some strawberries that aren't covered with sand and mud and make this year's jam before the season is over.

Have a good one. 

Salt Rising Bread

A family tradition going back as far as I can remember. When we were little my father's parents used to visit Hornell where they once lived and family remained. They would bring back a car full from a bakery there and share it with the families of their many children. (We have, sadly, lost a few of those fine people, but I gotta say...all us cousins have enjoyed the many benefits of a very fine set of aunts and uncles....real good folks.)

Now one of those cousins bakes it. That's right...she goes to all the trouble to take two days baking this naturally risen bread.

And then she shares it with the family. Yesterday she arrived at our doorstep after braving the horror of the badly washed out driveway......next time an Ark is built I am voting no mosquitoes....but that is another story.

Anyhow, a little toasting and a little strawberry jam and I was catapulted back to my childhood, willy-nilly.

In such a good way.

Thank you dear cousin for taking all this trouble and thinking to share with us. We are truly honored to be enjoying this amazing treat.

The Mulberry Shuttle

All birds will be Cedar Waxwings until further notice. Neat looking small bird sitting on the silver-green candles of the Blue Spruce?

Cedar Waxwing

Five small birds tumbling over and over one another like entertainers piling out of a clown car?

Cedar Waxwings.

At least thirty fluttering in every bush and shrub and tree?

Don't bother with the binoculars. 

They are all Cedar Waxwings. They show up about two weeks before the mulberry fruit appears and they are everywhere until fall...

They spend all day every day tugging at the half-ripe berries and devouring them.

Catbirds serve as conductors on the mulberry train. Their sleek, yet subtle uniforms and natty caps never looked mussed......but what about those flashy red under drawers?

Cardinals partake. Robins. Starlings. Baltimore Orioles.

Cedar Waxwings.

Birds that are supposed to be seed eaters, but sneak up there to tug away the berries. Gold Finches. House Finches. Purple Finches. Cedar Waxwings. Yellow Warblers are up to something over there. They claim they are just hunting bugs but I have my suspicions. 

And Cedar Waxwings.

There is never a dull moment out on the sitting porch or up in the bird window, but that's okay.....I enjoy the Mulberry Shuttle.

Flag Day

Because....America, you know.

Sunday Stills....Sunrises and Sunsets

Sunrise

It was a dark and stormy week, but we had a couple of pretty mornings and evenings .

And set

For more Sunday Stills.....

Never a Dull

This was soon all back together, but alas the magneto had a fail

Our boy took a quick trip home to see his dentist Friday. 

Tractor teamwork

Dentist early in the AM

For Great Grandma M

Tractor repair and trips to the parts store all day long.

Becky finished this really cool crochet needle case, which is much more impressive than it looks in this photo.

And at the end of a busy day he headed back....leaving us all sad and concerned for his trip...but all was calm and peaceful. Butter wouldn't melt in its mouth.

The boys of summer

Then, after the boys of summer stopped by for a visit while I was talking to him on the phone (hands free of course), all Hell broke loose.

Seriously. 

Tornado warnings screaming from the TV and an Amber Alert from my phone.

At first we just sat on the porch watching the clouds tangoing over the place. Then it started to feel ominous. I went up on the stair landing and watched to the west. It is the only place anywhere near the house where you can see the western sky.

Soon I was calling everyone up to see what I was seeing.

The consensus was that for the first time since we lived here that we should adjourn to the cellar, which we did.

The sky tantrum soon passed, leaving our phone out of order and a fairly large limb off the honey locust. However, much more damage was done in other areas than here. We were lucky.

It was actually worse than this, but we didn't hang around

I guess it wasn't a tornado, just cloud rotation, but it sure was exciting. I saw things in the cellar that I didn't even know were down there. Gigantic rocks built into the stone and limestone foundation. My little drawers of screws, which I put down there in hopes of someday having a workshop and bench for the boss and me to build things ...I had forgotten all about them. And Liz noticed how neatly the floor joists were cross braced...lots of cool architectural details....I don't go down there much because the stairs are treacherous.

However, I will force myself someday soon and get some pics. Meanwhile below are Liz and Peggy hanging out waiting for the storm to pass.....taken with the phone btw. Camera had to stay upstairs all alone.

Eventually all was calm. Alan made it to DC okay. It stormed all night, but I guess we slept through most of it.....today is all blue and white and fluffy.....but there is still that big limb to remove.

Drowning

Or maybe she's just taking a little drink....silly peony

Tails

No sunrise again this morning. It just won't stop raining...

This means, of course, that there is no sense in even thinking about haying. The boss can't even get the stuff that the weather has ruined chopped back on the ground.

The weeds and grass are growing though. 

At the sink at five AM I saw something moving atop the tall stuff next to the horse yard.

Wave, wave, wave.....looked like a baseball game out there. 

And then with a pop they went over the fence.

Deer. In greenery so high all you could see was their tails. Time for the kids to protect their garden up there I think.....

Uninspired but Restless

It's cold. It's been raining...a lot....and I am faced with too darned much bookkeeping of the not much fun kind. Thus I find it hard to write about much of anything. 

We are shipping our red heifer today. I hate to do this, as I really like her, but we need beef and I hate to buy it in the store. We have one more beef animal in the pipeline so to speak and then we are going to have to buy one.

Kind of an odd prospect for us. 

Another odd thing. In Florida this New Year I decided I wanted to do better by myself. If I ever got to do other such cool things in the future maybe I could do them better. Faster. Stronger.

I decided to eat less...no diet...just less.

And to do do more. Just do it, you know.

I had done pretty well too, up until Alan got me the phone with the pedometer. Clothes fit better. Felt better. More energy and all.

Then the pedometer entered my life, with that ten thousand step goal each day. I won't lie. Most days I average between 6 and 7 thou...... Mostly because of being busy doing stuff that doesn't involve walking. Haven't figured out yet how to walk and write or keep books.

However, the more I walk the more I want to walk. Talk about restless! I hopped up from the kitchen table yesterday in the early evening, grabbed Daisy's leash, and walked...quickly mind you...up to the Thirty-Acre Lot and back. Just to get moving.

And for the first time in my life I am fitter than my dog!!! There was plenty more walk left in me, but the little sausage ran out of steam. The prospect of carrying a wet, muddy, dog back to the house daunted me so we quit while we were ahead. Of course previous dogs (and hopefully future dogs) were Border Collies, and any and all of them would have still been raring to go even if we walked all the way to the top of 7-County Hill. Dachsies, not so much.

Ain't goals cool though? Whoda thunk it?

My Favorite Month

Busy weekend. Teeth replaced on the double rakes. Tire on the tedder. Little tractor delivered, torn down, frozen-up engine freed and various other efforts towards its eventually running the hay elevator undertaken. Rumor is that it will be a Father's Day present when it is ready to roll.

Photo bombed up on Lusso Rd. I wanted a pic of the mountains
and there were hundreds of Bobolinks and some Meadow Larks.

Some hay was loaded out. Visits from family and friends enjoyed. (Mom, the driveway is not really all THAT bad......)(we love you). A rooster was sold. All chicken houses cleaned.

Gardens weeded and rototilled and a couple more planted. Discovered to my utter amazement two little canna plants up in the asparagus bed. At least ten years ago, before I planted it to asparagus, I had a big bunch of them up there.

I thought I dug them all and in all those years there hasn't been a sign of them. Cannas do not overwinter here even in mild years and the past few winters have been anything, but mild...but there they are. 

Even Miss Catty Fach was busy

The only thing we can figure is when Jade rototilled over the bed he pulled them up from somewhere deep underground where they had somehow escaped the heavy frost.

The Camaro got an oil change and a bath after the guys went to the races and it was turned an interesting new color by all the dust.

And, then, alas, it headed back to Washington for a while...but we sure had fun while its driver was home. The rains came in and finished all possibility of baling the hay that is down.....oh, well....

This was at the car wash ......

Sunday Stills....Circles

For more Sunday Stills.......

Rain

Not today

None in the forecast until Monday, but a steady drizzle on that which is mowed up in the Thirty-Acre Lot. 

Alas. Glad he didn't mow any more than he did. 

Oh, well, it was pretty much a shakedown cruise for the machinery anyhow......