Changes

The Fall colors this year are subdued. We've experienced an extended drought which meant watering the garden every day. It's also meant spectacular weather for the later half of the summer. In the Spring we had what seemed like a dozen Saturdays in a row when it rained :-) 

One of the late summer chores this rear became scooping fibrous algae our of the pond. As the water level got lower and the sun shone, the algae bloomed at such a rapid pace that it began to form mats on the surface of the pond. I'd fill a large plastic storage box in the center of the canoe with algae skimmed out of the pond with a rake, and after several days of drying on the shore, would take it to the compost pile. I lost track of how may trips out and back I made! 

 

Free Range

 

Free-ranging our hens is more difficult than I first imagined. Much of the summer we've had at least one hawk in the area. Periodically we watched the crows get together, harass the hawk, and then escort if out of the ari space around the barn. We have lost hens, in the past to both hawks and a fox. they can be relentless and on alert.

As a result, the hens are in a stall in the evening roosting in the barn. During the day, they are most often in a pen behind the barn that has a small house and a run of about 30 feet. When we bring them in, in the evening, we often let them roam for several minutes in the barnyard before moving them to their stall. Does this qualify  as free range? 

Pond in Bloom

The perimeter of the pond burst into color this month from a steady stream of rainy Saturdays this Sprint==13 to be exact, but who's counting! It is a spectacular place with the red-winged blackbirds minding their nests, bees working the flowers and barn swallows flying acrobatics to catch meals for their chicks in the barn.

Hay Wagon

Early Fall brings its own special chores. Loading hay into the hayloft makes for great pics of farm life but it is a chore loading it in. In recent years, we've tried picking it up ourselves at a local farm in the pickup. I noted on several occasions that when we loaded the truck we got about 22 bails of hay stacked in. Then, after it was strapped in place it looked like a spider web around the truck. When the "real" farmers at the hay field loaded it, we got about 10 more bales stacked in, and it was so neat and tidy we barely had to tie it to keep it in place! Thank goodness for the conveyer belt!